Medical Billing Challenges - Decoded
An effective medical practice management banks on solving billing challenges, well before the issues affect the revenue. The real challenge is in recovering medical billing payments which can affect the business badly. To instantaneously generate revenue, we have to understand some common challenges while processing medical billing.
Provide patients with accurate quotes for the services
Health insurance plans have transformed over time with higher deductibles and, thereby the patients’ responsibility for medical bills is greater now than in the past. It is indeed a painstaking process to provide accurate quotes based on higher deductible billings, especially when patients are billed a higher amount than the quote given for the services, they may not make prompt payments.
A well trained front office staff, combined with proper research on how much each insurance provider will pay is essential to speed up collections. Patients are loyal to practices that give an accurate quote to pay bills.
Incomplete patient information on record
Usually, when a patient’s insurance information and personal details are not properly recorded, there is a greater tendency to receive claim denials; which complicates collection of bills owed by patients. Healthcare practitioners must ask clear and relevant questions to record pertinent information about the patients and follow it up by a verification process before updating it into the medical billing system.
Lapses in medical billing
Errors in medical billing are one of the commonest reasons for claim denials. And this gets flagged down for auditing, also increasing the cost of practice. The recent change in codes and the introduction of a host of new codes has made billing easier and accurate when the medical billing is automated.
Extended business offices and medical billing software are the most sought-after solutions for error-free billing. Major policy changes that have taken place in the recent years in the healthcare, billing, insurance, and compliance have made billing an arduous process. To cater to the growing demand for accurate and fast information, implementing the software and outsourcing billing is highly recommended.
Regulations and compliance
Hospitals and medical offices are under great pressure to stick to so many regulations that are constantly being amended and updated on a regular basis. These ever-changing stipulations are complex to follow up with by an in-house billing team. Outsourced billing experts are up to date with dynamic changes and use the software to automatically retrieve data of patients.
The boom in patient volume
Nowadays, there is a significant increase in patients who are insured with health insurance and there is a noticeable increase in the population of senior citizens as well. The result is an overflow of patients in practice offices. Identifying a reliable healthcare extended business office to handle the billing process will enable hospitals to focus on customer care, expansion, and growth of the practice.
Enhance the future of healthcare
By accurately coding with the new ICD-10, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with statistics bureaus will gain access to precise data rather than the disorganized records that can slow down their progress. Extracting information to analyze various health conditions, treatments and results using codes can be useful for research and education of healthcare.
Medical practices aiming to provide world-class care and attention to their patients can partner with our extended business office offering the latest software services for medical billing solutions. Call us today for a discussion on how to simplify the issues in medical billing in your business.
