1. Claims are not filed on time
Professional outsource medical billing experts understand the system and have a knack for filing claims accurately and as promptly as possible. This ensures that you get to receive your payments on schedule and do not have to wait for months to receive what’s yours.
2. Coding problems cause rejections
Coding problems are one of the chief causes of claim rejections and consequently, loss of claims. Outsource medical billing services have first-hand knowledge of codes and filing procedures to ensure that all medical claims are not only filed on time, but filed properly.
3. Outsourcing helps to cross common hurdles associated with claims
A plethora of challenges often arise when considering medical billing and claims filing. Common issues that can cause claims to remain unpaid or forfeited include:
4. Patient information inaccurate or not updated.
5. Claims are filed and processed to the wrong place.
6. Patients either can’t afford to pay or won’t pay, thereby leaving the business to inherit their liabilities.
7. Patients may be liable to pay for services uncovered by their insurance. This leaves you, the physician performing many financial logistics, issuing invoices and following-up.
8. Collection agencies can confer a bad image and PR on your business
While some organizations and medical establishments may opt to use collection agencies to recover their monies from patients, it is imperative to note that these agencies can be bad for patient relations, company image and can cost as high as 50 percent upwards of the monies collected. Outsourcing medical bills and claims can help to effectively manage cases like these and ensure that your business is not on the losing side.
9. Curtail unnecessary financial implications on the part of your business
According to gathered resources, properly prepared claims can take anywhere between 30 and 120 days to receive attention by insurance companies, Medicare or Medicaid. At times, physicians are left with no choice but to borrow money to cover the immediate expenses of the business while awaiting payments that may arrive in weeks, months, or never even come back.
10. Slump rejection of claims
As mentioned above, the rejected claims rate stands at 30 percent. Outsourced medical services have shown tremendous turnaround with claims and have demonstrated the ability to reduce rejected claims to an enviable 2 percent
11. Reduce financial losses
With professionally handled medical bills, claims and payments, your business can make sure that it receives patient’s monthly payments as at when due for their outstanding balances and liabilities owed to your business as at the time the services were provided.
You can also collect on old accounts receivable rather than total forfeiture without expending legal costs or using a collection agency.
If you’ve been practicing and billing third partied for patient visits, consultations, treatments and any other medical services or products, chances are, you’re already familiar with these hurdles. Sometimes, physicians do not recognize the huge cash crunch that the cost of medical billing, forfeitures and refusal of claims accumulate to on their business. Outsourcing on the other hand avails doctors of a way to utilize professional billing services and medical claims for their business to counter discrepancies that can delay, reduce or prevent payments altogether.
As at today, rejections are capped at around 30 percent in the industry. Due to the voluminosity of claims filed and handled, even the smallest errors can trigger rejections, and as such, it is imperative to use outsourced services to ensure perfection in handling medical billing and claims.
According to Keith Borglum, owner of Management and Marketing, Santa Rosa, CA, a single medical practice recorded an error rate of 71 percent in a year which saw the business accrue $185k in losses.
Outsourcing presents a plethora of opportunities to handle leakages in your practice stemming from both medical claims, filing errors, evasive patients or those who simply have no clear cut means of paying you money to ensure that you stay afloat in your medical practice and do away with unnecessary costs that can leave you running at a loss.
In conclusion with the right medical insurance billing services claims are typically paid in as few as seven days, with an average of 14 days from submission to payment. If there were no other advantages to using web-based, real-time filing, getting 98% of your claims through the first time and receiving payments within days instead of months are reasons enough
