You’ve known for a long time that administrative tasks associated with medical billing for providers is at the very best a headache, and the worst a certain nightmare. Don’t feel like you’re alone in this challenging arena. MGMA 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 of medical billing, 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 sever 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
- UnitedHealthcare 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 is 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. With a diverse perspective from a range of clients, ORI can help clinics streamline their medical billing processes 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. Outsource Receivables Inc. provides revenue cycle management expertise to surgical, family practice, specialty clinics, therapy offices, and mental health clinics throughout the Upper Midwest. Located in Minnesota, we have a special focus on clinics in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison, Milwaukee and Des Moines.