Reasons to Outsource Your Medical Billing

Updated for 2021: Top 5 Reasons to Outsource Your Medical Billing

The business of running an independent medical practice becomes more complex with every passing year. There are new regulations, coding updates (like the 2021 changes to E/M Coding), changing payer rules, and performance measures that can significantly affect reimbursement. Without expert oversight of their revenue cycle, healthcare organizations put their cash flow and revenue at risk when they are slow to adapt to these changes.  Here are our top 5 reasons to outsource your medical billing:

1.)  Reimbursement and Revenue are Decreasing and You Don’t Know Why

If your practice is struggling under the weight of medical claim processing and revenue cycle management, the writing is on the wall.  It’s only a matter of time until you see a decrease in reimbursement.  By partnering with a billing company, you benefit from the deep specialization that certified coders and practice management experts can provide.  This specialization ensures charges and coding are optimized (and compliant.)  Plus you’ll enjoy the benefit of knowing that rejections are being handled by a partner with the time and expertise who will overcome the obstacles to payment.

2.)  To Gain Transparency into Practice Financials

Billing companies provide a level of financial transparency that can be difficult to achieve- even with current gen PM/EHR software.  In fact, we hear from new clients that they’re surprised by the level of reporting we produce on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.  Medusind reporting is customized to the needs of the practice and enabled by our RCM platform, MedClarity.  Essentially, you get enterprise-grade reporting and analytics with a PM software that scales from solo provider practices to the largest, most complex operations.

3.)  Gain Assurance that All Charges are Captured

Outsourcing your billing will ensure that all visits are accounted for and the associated claims (electronic superbills) are created. Since reimbursement is directly tied to their payment, it is critical that all visits and charges are captured then submitted.  This level of assurance happens with a combination of automated fail safes in our software and with a layer of human oversight.  The practice and the billing company’s interests are aligned in maximizing reimbursement.

4.) Increase Focus on Patients

Another benefit of outsourcing your medical billing is that staff in the office can now concentrate solely on the clinical aspects of patient care and the overall experience your practice provides instead of purely administrative tasks like authorizations or eligibility checks.  Staff can be reassigned to tasks related to the quality of care and hitting patient satisfaction benchmarks which have both been steadily increasing in importance.

5.) To Reduce Operational Expenses

Collecting your reimbursement is expensive – a well-run billing department requires technology, space, constant training, and experienced personnel. There was a time when offices could make do with medical billers who were little more than data processors. That time is over because of the increasing complexity and ever-changing nature of our healthcare system.

According to industry averages, the average billing specialist stays with an organization for 1 – 3 years. For most medical practices, that means they are continually incurring costs to hire and train new employees. The average biller costs $27/hour, so the money spent hiring and retaining the labor necessary for revenue cycle management adds up fast. Labor costs along with billing performance are undoubtedly the most substantial factors cited when the decision is made to outsource medical billing.

Wrapping Up Reasons to Outsource Your Medical Billing

There is 1 key reason we hear from practices for “why” they’ve decided to outsource their medical billing: revenue is not where they think it should be.  In most cases, the practices are correct.  If their billing and collections were handled by experts, they would be collecting more.  Unfortunately for healthcare organizations, rapidly changing rules and regulations and their staff’s lack of time to stay informed shows that the deck may be somewhat stacked against them.  Get your competitive advantage back by partnering with Medusind.  See how our medical billing services can increase your practice revenue up to 30% then set a time to speak with us.