Shortage of billing and coding staff remains to be one of the major problems faced by medical practices. Providers find it difficult to enhance revenue and sail through billing challenges as finding and hiring qualified coders and billers is difficult and expensive.
How will the shortage affect your practice?
The market not just lacks qualified candidates but a large number of available coders and billers lack on-the-job experience, affecting the revenue cycle of medical practices. Billing and coding specialists are an important link between doctors, patients and insurance carriers. If a practice hires untrained or inexperienced billers and coders, bills will not get paid on time, insurance information will not get verified or utilized and patient data will remain unorganized.
- If you hire untrained billers, you will get delayed or no payment for the services offered
- If you hire untrained coders, claims will not be coded accurately before being submitted to insurance payers
- Skilled coders and billers will become a necessity for providers with the implementation of ICD-10
The right code set can be used only with the right skill set. Even though it has been projected by the US Labour Department that 38,000 more health information technician jobs will be created between 2010 and 2020, shortage of coders will continue post ICD-10, causing practices and hospitals to suffer revenue losses.
How can outsourcing bring an end to your staffing problems?
Facing trouble finding certified coders and billers? Losing revenue due to under-coding or over-coding? In-house coders and billers not able to submit claims on time or follow-up with insurance carriers? If you can relate to these issues, it is better to hire a billing partner and outsource your billing requirement rather than losing money due to staff shortage.
- Billing companies have a team of certified, well-trained coders and billers who are proficient in handling the revenue cycle of different medical specialties
- Since billing company coders are experienced, you can eliminate the worries of under-coding or over-coding
- You can be assured of error-free, comprehensive billing and coding services, without compromising on patient care
- Since medical billing companies keep training and updating their coders and billers with latest technology and system, providers don’t need to worry about hiring and training their in-house staff
Apart from solving staffing issues, outsourcing has several other advantages for medical practices. A specialized billing service not only eliminates the risk of delays and coding errors but also ensure quality control, 30-40% saving on medical coding costs, reduced technical support costs and operating costs.
Billing partners like Medicalbillersandcoders.com have been helping practices deal with shortage of skilled billers and coders. MBC has the largest consortium of well-trained staff who are constantly updated with latest billing reforms and regulations to help providers sail through billing and collection challenges. You can seek help from MBC for all your billing issues, without worrying about hiring or training coders and billers, HIPAA compliance, health record implementation and other administrative tasks.
