Medical billing can be a complex process, taking many hours of time and eating into valuable resources. Traditionally, medical billing has been something that is handled in-house, but like many aspects of business, entrepreneurs have come to save the day, offering medical practices the chance to outsource their medical billing, removing the stress from their own plates.
But is outsourcing medical billing a good idea? Well here are the 5 key benefits you could see, and we’ll let you make up your mind for yourself.
Benefits of outsourcing your medical billing
There are many benefits of outsourcing your medical billing, but to keep this post concise we’re going to focus on the big 5 – Cost, Consistency, Credibility, Convenience, and Control.
Cost
People tend to assume that outsourcing must come with an additional cost, but this isn’t always the case. Specialist billing companies can take advantage of the economics of scale to offer their services at more affordable prices than you’d be able to if handling the same claims in-house. Alongside reducing the amount of money spent on in-house billing personnel, companies can reduce equipment, software and hardware costs, all of which add up to savings all-round.
Consistency
When it comes to medical billing it’s vital that you maintain consistency. In a small business, in-house billing can find itself in trouble when a person is off sick or on vacation, leading to backlogs of billing. By outsourcing the billing process, companies can ensure that their billing is handled consistently, no matter the number of bills they need to produce or chase.
Credibility
Third-party medical billing firms are specialists in their field – it’s what they do day in and day out. What’s more, it is in the best interest of medical billing companies to stay up to date with healthcare affairs and any changes to the healthcare landscape and this information can be passed to you without you needing to conduct any of the research yourself.
Convenience
At a very basic level, outsourcing such a timely and stressful aspect of your business can take a huge amount of pressure off your employees, enabling you to focus on what you do best – providing the highest quality of healthcare. There’s no need to worry about chasing up payment reminders, all of that will be handled for you, and ultimately you’ll get paid faster by using an agency who can handle re-bills efficiently and immediately.
Control
Many people worry about losing control whenever they outsource a business process, but that isn’t actually the case. By outsourcing key areas of your business, such as your medical billing, you actually regain greater control of your processes, after all, you are the client and the agency is working for you. What’s more, you will also gain greater transparency and insight into how your business is performing, with accurate and up-to-date reports circulated to you as and when you need them.
So is outsourcing your medical billing a good idea? We have to say it certainly looks like it could be. What are your thoughts on outsourcing?
