One of the best ways for a physician group to save money and increase revenue is to outsource billing. Whether it’s an at-home medical billing specialist, a practice management firm or a medical billing company, the time and resources a physician group can save add up fast. You’ll also have fewer rejected claims, less risk of fraud, more rapid payments and an overall improved business model.
Still, the process of choosing the right billing company can be a tough one. You need to ask the right questions if you want to get the full benefits of outsourcing and to find the company that will work best with your organization.
Here are the top three questions you need to ask a billing company before outsourcing:
1) How will you fit your operations into our business model?
In many ways, your vendor needs to serve as an extension of your own office. Rather than completely changing your procedures or policies in order to fit the billing company, you need to see what the billing company will do in order to match your business processes. A good billing company will be able to customize a process which combines the vendor's expertise with your operations. Part of this evaluation is understanding how your office will interact with the billing company. The specific responsibilities to remain in-house and those to be outsourced should be spelled out as early as possible, ideally during the interview process.
2) How can you improve our billing processes?
Your vendor representatives should be able to identify potential weak areas in your billing process. It isn’t necessary for them to come in and entirely overhaul your business model, but a quality billing vendor should be able to point out specific changes that you can make in order to increase your overall efficiency. They should be able to audit your processes and improve upon them.
3) What are your claims payment rates?
If a vendor can’t do better than your in-house staff, there is no reason to outsource. That’s why you’re looking for outside expertise in the first place. Ask a potential vendor for specific statistics related to paid and denied claims. You should expect a vendor to readily provide you with these measurements so you can compare them to industry benchmarks. Be cautious of cut-rate billing vendors who may not be able to get claims paid. You’re always better off paying a little more for a service that will immediately increase revenues.