MEDICAL BILLING MISTAKES

Category: Health

In today’s world of complex and struggling economy, issues related to the medical billing industry has taken precedence in identifying the stability of a medical practice. One of the biggest challenges that physicians are facing today is not limited patient care but the business side of healthcare operations particularly Medical Billing and Coding. After years of practicing and preparing for healthcare, physicians today mark their place in the industry by providing best care for their patients. These professionals often face challenges every day from researching complex diseases to providing emergency treatments. However there is another vital factor of a successful medical practice that is the focus required to ensure right medical billing. We all would agree that Medical Billing is an extremely significant component in the healthcare industry today. I would like to highlight some of the frequent mistakes and the kind of services available in the market to ensure best reimbursements for the physicians. An estimated ~$130 Billion is left on the table by the doctors in the U.S. each year just because of poor billing practices. Here are two most common factors that I find are contributing to a loss in profits. Frequent Billing Errors: An estimated 70% of medical bills contain errors that include major and minor errors. But an error is an error is an error and payers today have become are very strict on correct medical billing and coding practices. Even the smallest mistake is causing the insurance companies to reject a claim. Here begins a long process of fixing the issues while it could have been avoided by following proper billing practices. This is then followed by a hope that it would be cleared the second time it is submitted. This is in-turn costing the doctors several months of waiting for the doctors to receive the payments for their services. Not Up-to-date with Medical Billing Regulations: Rules keep changing. All the time. This is having the administrators and to spend time and money on continuing training to stay current learning new technology which is having a direct effect on profits and cash flow for the practices. Having said this, you can’t deny that proper medical billing procedures have become most important than ever considered some of the major changes like Healthcare Reform, which has increased the insured Americans by over 30 Million. Though outsourcing Billing & Coding may sounds expensive upfront, when all components are added up, it over a period of time becomes more beneficial from an overall cost perspective. The amount of time and efforts doctors spend on billing and staffing concerns can be out rightly eliminated. Obviously this time can be spent on patient care. Most of the times your current employees would not have time run through rejected claims. However a third party billing company is dedicated to this. Odds are that outsourcing medical billing firms have more coding and billing expertise.