1. Claims are not filed on time
Outsourced professional medical billing experts understand the system and know how to file claims accurately and as quickly as possible. This ensures that you receive your payments on time and do not have to wait months to receive what is yours.
2. Coding issues lead to rejections
Coding issues are one of the leading causes of claim rejections and consequently lost claims. Outsourced medical billing services have first-hand knowledge of filing codes and procedures to ensure that all medical claims are not only filed on time, but are filed correctly as well.
3. Outsourcing Helps Overcome Common Obstacles Associated With Claims
A host of challenges often arise when considering medical billing and claim submission. Common issues that can cause claims to go unpaid or lost include:
4. Inaccurate or outdated patient information.
5. Claims are filed and processed in the wrong place.
6. Patients cannot or do not want to pay, leaving the company to inherit their responsibilities.
7. Patients may be responsible for paying for services not covered by their insurance. This leaves you, the doctor, doing a lot of financial logistics, issuing bills and following up.
8. Collection agencies can give your business a bad image and public relations
While some organizations and medical facilities may choose to use collection agencies to recover money from patients, it is imperative to note that these agencies can be bad for patient relations, company image, and can cost up to 50 percent of the money raised. Medical bill and claims outsourcing can help manage cases like these effectively and ensure your business isn’t on the losing end.
9. Reduce unnecessary financial implications for your business
Based on the collected resources, properly prepared claims can take anywhere from 30 to 120 days to receive attention from insurance companies, Medicare or Medicaid. Sometimes doctors are left with no choice but to borrow money to cover immediate business expenses while they wait for payments that may come in weeks, months, or even never come back.
10. Rejection for falling claims
As mentioned above, the denied claim rate is 30 percent. Outsourced medical services have shown tremendous turnaround with claims and have demonstrated the ability to reduce denied claims to an enviable 2 percent.
11. Reduce financial losses
With professionally handled medical bills, claims, and payments, your business can ensure you receive monthly payments from patients when due for their outstanding balances and obligations owed to your business at the time services were rendered.
You can also collect old receivables in lieu of full forfeiture without spending legal costs or using a collection agency.
If you’ve been practicing and billing third parties for patient visits, consultations, treatments, and any other medical services or products, chances are you’re already familiar with these obstacles. Sometimes doctors don’t recognize the huge cash shortage that the cost of medical billing, forfeitures, and claim denials accumulate in their business. Outsourcing, on the other hand, gives doctors a way to use professional billing and medical claims services for their business to offset discrepancies that can delay, reduce, or avoid payments altogether.
As of today, rejects are capped at around 30 percent in the industry. Due to the sheer volume of claims filed and handled, even the smallest errors can trigger denials, making it imperative to use outsourced services to ensure perfection in billing and medical claims handling. According to Keith Borglum, owner of Management and Marketing, Santa Rosa, CA, a single medical practice posted a 71 percent error rate in a year in which the company racked up $185,000 in losses.
Outsourcing presents a plethora of opportunities to manage leakage into your practice stemming from both medical claims, filing errors, evasive patients, or those who just don’t have a clear means of paying you money to ensure you stay afloat in your medical practice and eliminate unnecessary costs that can leave you running at a loss.