Medical Billing - What's All The Hype About?
By Michele Redmond
We see so many ads for Medical Billing. Earn lots of money! Work from home! No
experience needed! The ads say anyone can make lots of money doing medical
billing, but is it really true?
“
Medical Billing Services aren't getting rich like the ads portray
”
Medical insurance billing has become much more complicated in recent years. If
a doctor is to be paid well for his services, the insurance billing is a very
large part of his practice.
There is a lot more to medical billing than just sending a claim in to an
insurance company and sitting back to wait for the payment. Each company has its
own rules and in order to get paid, we must know them and follow them. How do
you learn these rules and where do you turn for medical billing information?
Because it has become so complicated, it has become increasingly difficult to
find employees who can handle this time consuming job. A doctor's office is a
busy place and his employee may not have half an hour to wait on hold while
checking on a claim, for a customer service representative to tell her that the
claim is "not on file".
Since their income, and ultimately the success of their office relies so heavily
on the billing being done effectively, Doctors have found it increasingly
cost-effective to outsource their medical billing to professionals who can
concentrate solely on his billing. If the billing service is being paid on the
basis of their results, the doctor is more likely to maximize his receivables.
The medical billing service is going to concentrate their efforts on getting
every claim paid when the service is paid according to their results while a
billing person in the office is more likely on a busy day to say "Forget it.
This claim isn't worth another phone call!!" Unfortunately in most offices this
claim will be written off and the doctor will never know.
There is so much involved with billing that most people, including the doctors,
don't even realize. The claims have to be submitted properly, and timely, on the
correct forms.
If claims are being submitted electronically, reports need to be read and acted
upon. When payments are received, they need to be analyzed to make sure they
were processed correctly, and then posted.
If there is a patient responsibility after payment is made, then a patient
statement needs to be sent. If the claim is denied, or not paid properly, it
needs to be handled, and handled quickly. If the denial or incorrect payment
is not acted upon right away, you may not be able to correct it.
Some companies only allow a certain amount of time to request a reversal. Aging
reports need to be run regularly to make sure nothing else is slipping thru the
cracks. Most offices lose thousands of dollars a year due to claims slipping
thru the cracks; either processed/denied incorrectly, or not processed at all.
If you are not working your aging reports - you are losing money!
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