Medical billing administrative Burdens are Costing You Big Money.
You’ve known for a long time that administrative tasks associated with medical billing to providers is at the very best a headache, and at the worst a certain nightmare. Don’t feel like you’re alone in this challenging arena. MGMA recently conducted a Payer Performance Study and found the majority of clinic offices are dissatisfied and down-right frustrated with the unacceptable administrative burden. The Association’s annual Practice Perspective on Payer Performance poll confirms this.
In its fourth year, the MGMA poll indicates there is some mild improvement in certain areas, but the overall picture is one of frustration. Survey participants have again ranked Medicare Part B as one of the most cumbersome payers. The list rankings are below for the top seven payers drawing dissatisfactory marks. Note the marks are based on a five-point scale (with 5 indicating “complete satisfaction”.)
Medicare Part B 3.59
CIGNA 3.11
Aetna 3.09
Anthem 2.96
Coventry 2.91
Humana 2.87
United Healthcare 2.67
With many of these names looking all too familiar, MGMA plans to share this information with these providers in hopes of improvement.
So how much are administrative tasks associated with insurance billing costing your practice? Back in 2006, MGMA conducted another clinic survey and found the number of hours spent by clinic personnel – including physicians, nurses, administrators, and clerical staff – on health plan interactions almost staggering. The results found that physicians are spending roughly three hours weekly dealing with health-plan administrative tasks. Senior administrators averaged about two hours per week, nurses close to 20 hours a week, and clerical staff spent anywhere from 35-40 weekly on health-plan administrative tasks. When all of these hours are added up it comes out to $70,000 per full-time physician needed to cover the man-hours associated with these tasks. Annually, nationwide, this adds up to between $23 billion to $31 billion.
The sheer dollars spent in people hours for a clinic to facilitate these interactions leave room for one to consider what outsourcing their medical billing may do for their clinic’s bottom line. Outsource Receivables Inc. is a premier revenue cycle management company located in Minnesota. With clients nationwide, ORI can help clinics streamline their medical billing process and enhance a clinic’s bottom line.
For more information about ORI, contact Dan Smits at 763-398-5209. Or visit www.ori.thatsmyideamarketing.com and learn why ORI makes sense for your clinic.