As a medical billing company when we talk with providers, we noticed, most of them are under a lot of pressure and feel burnout. This pressure is due to continuously changing payer policies and reimbursement guidelines; proper documentation; ever-increasing claim denials; increased accounts receivables; struggle to retain expert billing staff, and many other activities related to revenue generation. Most providers feel exhausted due to these administrative and billing activities and can’t dedicate more time towards patient care. If you are one of such providers who feel they are seeing more patients but getting fewer reimbursements then it might be time for you to seek professional help in medical billing. In this article, we discussed 7 such signs that show you need professional help in medical billing.
You Need Professional Help in Medical Billing
Sign 1: Administrative Burden
Is your front desk staff feeling overworked? Or like there is too much stress on them on what they are expected to complete in a day? Is your patient collection amount is ever increasing? Are your claims getting rejected due to wrong/outdated insurance details? Burnout is on the rise across the medical field as providers and their front desk team experience ever increased administrative burden. This happens as your admin staff is not well qualified or well trained to perform insurance eligibility and benefits functions. Maybe your front desk staff doesn’t understand the importance of accurate patient demographics and insurance information. Your staff may not be aware of patient co-payment or unpaid deductibles amount or overall insurance coverage at the time of patient visit.
Sign 2: High Staff Turnover
You need billing and coding experts to submit all the claims correctly. Coding and billing guidelines change as per medical specialty and insurance carriers. Finding such billing and coding experts is a tough task and retaining them is even tougher. Billing staff can be hard to keep, especially if the flow of your revenue cycle is experiencing kinks. Having to hire and train new billing staff is exhausting and costly. It can cause important details to slip through the cracks. If your biller or coder leaves your practice then there are some claims that might get wrongly submitted (or no submission at all) causing your loss of revenue.
Sign 3: Reduced Reimbursements
As discussed earlier, you might be getting the feeling that you are seeing more patients but still receiving fewer reimbursements. Reduced insurance reimbursement is a strong sign indicating that you need professional assistance in medical billing. If you start tracking each and every claim, you will realize lots of claims are getting denied or rejected and need rework. Submitting clean claims, tracking every claim, and taking follow-up action – these three revenue cycle activities ensure a constant flow of reimbursement. You need to read the insurance remittance report carefully to understand claim payment, rejection, or denial with remark/reason codes.
Sign 4: Lesser Time towards Patient Care
The reason many providers entered the medical field was that they have a passion for patient care. Spending your time on administrative tasks, denial reports, or talking with an insurance rep may not justify your passion. If you’re starting to notice that your practice is constantly chasing after payments rather than focusing on their patients, it might be time to outsource medical billing. Doing so can help your practice regain focus on what matters the most.
Sign 5: Decreased Workflow Efficiency
Your staff is working really hard, everyone is constantly doing something but still, the final output in terms of revenue or patient care is not satisfactory. If you are seeing a decline in workflow efficiency across your organization, it may be time to outsource medical billing. Doing so allows your staff to focus on patient-critical tasks while an expert billing team tracks and reviews claims to ensure optimal billing processes.
Sign 6: Increased Patient Payments
With the increased popularization of value-based plans like High Deductible Health Plan, providers everywhere are seeing an increased patient payment. You might be struggling to collect patient payments at the time of services only. Working with a quality medical billing company can help your organization form a calculated plan on how to continue growing revenue despite this change.
Sign 7: Increased Efforts Toward Collections
With an increase of reliance on patient payments comes an increase in payments that go to collections. Once the patient leaves your practice, it’s really difficult to recover the patient responsibility portion. You needed more follow-up efforts to collect patient responsibility. Most of the providers write off this amount as follow efforts of their team are not worth it. Rather than managing in-house staff to chase down those payments, you should outsource medical billing. Doing so with a quality partner will improve your overall management of difficult collections and improve your bottom line.
Reduce Out-of-Network Denials. Improve Speed-to-Care.
If you have observed more than four above-mentioned signs, that emphasizes, you need professional help in medical billing. MedicalBillersandCoders (MBC) is a leading medical billing and coding company that provides a complete set of medical billing and coding services. Our medical billing services include charge entry, eligibility verification, clean claim submission, payment posting, accounts receivable follow-up, denial analysis and resolution, and provider credentialing. With our medical billing services, you can earn more at the same time can spend more time on patient care. To know more about our medical billing and coding services, contact us at info@medicalbillersandcoders.com/ 888-357-3226
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FAQs
1. What are the common signs that indicate I need professional help in medical billing?
If your practice is experiencing issues such as administrative burden, high staff turnover, reduced reimbursements, decreased workflow efficiency, or increased efforts toward collections, these may be signs that you need to consider outsourcing your medical billing to professionals.
2. How does outsourcing medical billing help reduce administrative burden?
Outsourcing medical billing shifts tasks like claim submissions, denial management, and insurance follow-ups to experienced professionals. This allows your front desk staff to focus on patient-related tasks and reduces stress caused by administrative responsibilities.
3. Why is high staff turnover in billing and coding a problem for practices?
High staff turnover can disrupt revenue flow, as newly hired and trained staff may overlook critical details. This can lead to claim rejections, delays in reimbursements, and loss of revenue. Professional medical billing services provide consistent and expert support, minimizing disruptions.
4. How does outsourcing medical billing improve workflow efficiency?
A professional billing company streamlines billing operations by ensuring clean claim submissions, accurate coding, and timely follow-ups. This frees up your internal staff to concentrate on patient care and critical tasks, improving overall workflow efficiency.
5. Can outsourcing medical billing help with increased patient payments and collections?
Yes, outsourcing medical billing allows experts to create effective plans for managing patient payments, reducing reliance on collections, and improving recovery rates for patient responsibility portions. This ensures better cash flow and reduces the need to write off uncollected payments.
