6 Ways Outsourcing Billing Protects a Practice’s Bottom Line

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” This is true in life as well as your medical practice. Especially when it comes to billing.

A recent report says that 90% of independent practices plan to outsource their billing, which makes perfect sense. From keeping up with the latest technology to knowing the intricacies of correctly coding each patient visit, outsourcing billing can go a long way in protecting a practice’s bottom line.

Streamlined Statement Design

As many as 70% of patients are confused about their medical bills, making it essential to have well-designed statements that remove the guesswork.

Many third-party medical billing companies have mastered the art of statement design by creating easy to read, patient-friendly statements. Patients who understand their medical costs are not only more content, but more likely to pay on time as well.     

Multiple Payment Options

Today’s patients span several generations who take care of their finances in multiple ways. From point of service, over the phone and web-based payment systems to the old school mail-in option, it’s important to provide your patients with choices.  

The multitude of payment options can be overwhelming for administrative staff, as they are a lot to manage. That’s where outsourced billing comes in. Third-party billing companies have incorporated several payment options to help patients pay the way they feel most comfortable. This results in happy patients and less work for administrative staff so they can focus on other tasks.  

Administrative Expenses

If you’re a three-provider practice that averages 80 claims per day you could be saving as much as $250,000 per year by outsourcing your billing. As the healthcare industry changes, billing and coding is becoming an intense job. Managing these processes in-house can be time-consuming, requiring your busy staff to spend an immense amount of time working on billing.

When you outsource billing, the vendor will handle all claim denials and unpaid claims, which can be a revenue drain if not handled correctly. Quality billers have extensive experience in managing claims in an effective and efficient manner. If billing is kept in-house, you must train your staff biller, which takes time and money.

Billing companies also have staff members who specialize in different parts of the revenue cycle. They keep up with industry trends and best practices so you don’t have to, allowing you and your staff more time to focus on your patients.  

Improve Patient Experience

According to a recent survey, 65% of consumers would consider switching providers for a better healthcare payment experience. You don’t want to hemorrhage patients due to a difficult billing process.  

Many medical billing companies offer portals allowing patients to access their medical bills at the touch of a button. Being able to see detailed invoices, as well as account balances helps patients feel better about their experience with your practice. Your medical billing provider can also field phone calls and answer common questions patients have about their bills.

Being able to speak with expert medical billers can help patients feel better about the overall billing experience.

Evaluate Patient Payment Behavior

It’s hard to gain insight into an issue when you can’t gather data easily. A great advantage of outsourcing medical billing is gaining access to an administrative portal. These portals offer insight into both your inbound payments and outgoing statements.

For inbound payments, daily reports show all payments that have come in as well as account numbers and source of payment. To keep an eye on outgoing statements, you can see what has been mailed, received or is missing. For electronically delivered statements, you can see what emails have been delivered, which were opened and which came back undeliverable.

Having this information at your fingertips can help you make informed decisions about future billing procedures.

Reduce Paper Storage

Does your staff spend a lot of time reprinting old statements for patients? Is it time-consuming for them to pull old files? By using a billing vendor, your data will be filed and organized electronically and stored in the cloud. Having easy access to this information makes it simple to give patients the information they need while saving the valuable time of your in-house staff.

Whether you’re looking to create a better patient experience or save precious time, outsourcing your billing just might be the golden ticket to protecting the bottom line of your practice.

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To talk to a Kareo Solutions Consultant about how managed billing services can improve your bottom line: