7 Tips for Choosing the Best Medical Billing Company

Medical claim denials rose by 11% over the last year, costing medical providers billions of dollars.

There are plenty of ways to cut down on the lost revenue. You can hire more staff, or you can outsource medical billing.

Outsourcing can lower your billing costs and help you get paid faster, which ensures consistent cash flow.

There are all types of medical billing services. You want to make sure that you hire the best medical billing company to suit your needs.

How can you make sure that you find the right billing services? Read on to discover the top tips to get the right service company.

1. Matches Your Practice

Experience is everything in medical billing. It reduces your risk and ensures that you’ll see a return on investment.

You’ll want to avoid a medical billing company with only a few years of experience. Look for a company that has been around for a while. They should have a record of success with other medical practitioners.

What other types of experience should you look for? Look for a company that worked with other medical practitioners in your specialization.

For instance, if you’re a chiropractor, look for medical billing services that have experience working with chiropractors. They’ll understand the unique billing situations in your area of expertise.

The best medical billing company isn’t too big for your medical practice, but not too small either. They should handle your billing volume, give you personalized attention, and have room to scale their services as you grow your practice.

2. Customized Contract

One bad sign of a medical billing company is that they have a standard contract that applies to all of their clients.

Your medical practice has unique challenges and needs. Your contract has to make sure that your business needs get addressed.

A company that offers a contract without flexibility is likely to leave some part of your billing process exposed. That has a huge impact on your business, so you should skip over any company that doesn’t customize contracts.

3. Certifications

As a medical practitioner, you’re required to abide by HIPAA. Before 2013, your business associates weren’t required to abide by it.

However, changes to the law were made in 2013, which requires your business associates to comply with all of the privacy and data regulations.

When you outsource medical billing or any other part of your medical practice, you take on additional risk if you choose the wrong company.

You’re ultimately responsible for your practice, not your business associates. Your practice would face fines and penalties.

That’s why you need to have certified medical billing services work with you. There are certifications from the American Medical Billing Association that address regulations and compliance.

Another one is the Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist certification. Check to see what certifications the company and employees have.

4. Transparency

You depend on accurate financial reporting to make strategic decisions within your practice. If a company gets creative with your financials, you could be in big trouble and not know it.

You should be able to access information at any time. Top medical billing providers offer the ability to log in and view individual claims, where you can check the status of each one.

5. Cost of Service

You may have noticed that prices increased in 2019. Medical billing companies have different pricing structures and fees.

A company could charge a flat rate for its services. That’s a simple way to track and manage your expenses.

They may have a one-time setup fee to set up your account. It’s common for there to be administrative fees for maintenance and software updates. They also charge a percentage of billings received in addition to these fees.

You have to be clear as to what a company charges and when. Be sure to get a full accounting of fees before you hire a medical billing company.

6. Software

This is an important consideration that’s easy to overlook. You can’t assume that your systems and the medical billing company’s systems will play well together.

Compatibility is everything to have a smooth experience outsourcing medical billing. Ask if your systems can easily integrate with the service provider’s systems.

If they don’t integrate, then ask what other options are. You want to avoid migrating all of your data to a new system because that takes precious time away from your practice.

You should also ask about staff training. Your staff is likely to work closely with the medical billing company, so there should be some kind of support as you get started.

However, if you believe that hiring an outside party for medical billing might not be a good idea financially, you could alternatively look for software that can provide medical billing services in addition to others.

For example, you could use something like Medical Office Software that can handle most of the tasks, such as keeping track of patient details, records, appointments, communication, along with medical billing./p>

7. Low Staff Turnover

A company with high turnover is a sign to run away from that business. Turnover is a sign of larger issues within the company.

Staff members are probably low-paid. The morale could be very low at the company. This leads to low productivity and a lack of care when it comes to working on your account.

That trickles down to your cash flow and ability to operate your business.

A company that has low turnover is likely to treat employees well. In turn, they’ll treat your account very well.

Finding the Best Medical Billing Company

A medical billing company like Gryphon Healthcare could be an important partner in your medical practice. They’re responsible for generating the cash flow to operate your business.

If you don’t hire the best medical billing company, you could put your business in jeopardy. The tips presented in this article show you what to look for when you outsource medical billing.

Be patient and take the time to interview companies. You’ll be sure to find the perfect one for your practice.

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