For clinics and doctors who bill to Medicare and Medicaid, adopting an EHR and showing meaningful use can still mean big bonus dollars in 2014. The need for a professional to help with the complexities medical billing and having revenue cycle management outsourcing partner to navigate the Medicare and Medicaid system is apparent. However, what about your office where you don’t accept and bill to Medicare and Medicaid? What are the benefits for your office in outsourcing your medical billing?
The benefits of outsourcing medical billing for those clinics that don’t accept Medicare and Medicaid are great. They include:
- Greater billing efficiency
- Better cash flow
- Collections simplification
- Feedback on receivables benchmarking
Revenue Cycle Management Outsourcing for Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness
How does outsourcing help your clinic be more efficient? By freeing up staff resources to do what they do best, serve your patients. The time and energy it takes to effectively follow up on insurance denials and rejections can be overwhelming for an on-site medical billing office. Without a consistent and timely system in place to properly work those accounts, your office leaves money on the table every year.
An outsource professional group such as Outsource Receivables Inc. will have systems and dedicated staff already in place to continuously work troublesome claims and in turn get you paid and paid faster. Many times the timely recovery of these claims outweighs the cost of hiring an outsource professional group.
Cash Flow
What percentage of your aging receivables is sitting in the 90 days column? If you have more than 12-15% sitting in 90 days, your cash flow is being affected. With an outsource professional group, timely and correct submissions coupled with efficient follow up on troublesome claims can mean all the difference in your clinic’s cash flow.
Collections Simplification
The patient self-pay portions of your bills are likely one of the hardest areas upon which to collect. Many of today’s practice management systems provide resources to check on procedure eligibility and pre-qualification with insurance before the patient even arrives at your office. Preparation on your staff’s part helps you to know how much to collect directly from your patients even before services have been rendered. When working with Outsource Receivables, our professionals will work with your staff to learn how to use the tools available to you. We also can train your staff on how to ask, up-front for the self-pay portion. Turing a difficult collections area like self-pay into a pre-paid process is possible!
Receivables Benchmarking Feedback
Some clinics don’t know what good aging really looks like. We all know you will always carry some amount of aging receivables on your books. That is simply part of the medical billing business. However, being aware of when your aging is becoming a problem is many times overlooked by a busy on-site business office. As long as there is money coming in to pay the bills, everything looks good right?
When working with Outsource Receivables, we help you monitor your aging. We also make a commitment to you to keep your aging accounts at 12% or less. Keeping track of your aging helps you to set goals within your office as well.
For another perspective, Byyan Walpert published an article on the ACPInternist blog about how to decide whether you need an outside billing company as well as tips for choosing the right one. It is dated 1999 but is an even more salient topic in 2014.
The opportunity for your office to be more profitable in 2014 is just a phone call away. To set up your consultation and complimentary analysis of your current business, call me, Dan Smits, at Outsource Receivables Inc. today. 763-398-5209 or 866-585-2800 (option 1).
Dan Smits, President, Outsource Receivables, Inc.