The fundamental responsibility of a physician is to take care of the patient. He has to keep up with the ever changing healthcare industry and make sure that he can provide solutions to the myriad diseases of the visiting patients. In such a case if billing too becomes one of his duties, the task can seem daunting.
On the other hand if the physician ignores billing, his bottom line will take a hit and he might as well be out of business. Billing is not an easy task and requires full dedication and sincerity. A halfhearted attempt at billing might result in submission of incorrect claim forms which will result in loss of revenue. One needs to understand that the doctor apart from treating the patient needs to make money and if his billing is not done correctly he could end up seeing closed doors for his practice.
Industry News
The medical billing industry is pegged at two billion dollars and it is slated to grow over 3% annually. It employs more than 13000 people in the US. Experts feel this industry will grow steadily over the next five years primarily due to the growing senior population which will create demand via Medicare. Moreover, there will be an increase in the number of insured people due to the new healthcare reforms which allow people with preexisting conditions to apply for insurance. This will certainly give rise to the number of insured people. The market share concentration in the industry is very low. The largest player accounts for over 20% of the industry revenue while the others hold less than 5% revenue each.
Advantages of Medical Billing Services
The advantages of medical billing services are:
- They implement a detailed accounting cross check procedure which checks and balances data to ensure the accuracy of data as well as all the financial transactions that take place
- Providing security is a vital clause. They usually have state of the art security like electronic key access to patient information and financial documents, apart from that they have secured servers and protected database access
- When the practice chooses a medical billing service they can get dedicated support 24*7. They hire a team of professionals who are well aware of the practice management system
- They bring about a wealth of experience as they are doing this day in and day out. Hence, their approach is professional, accurate and they provide good results
