When it comes to medical coding and billing, it would be hard to find a more challenging scenario than hospital billings. Obviously, a hospital billing department will have to know how to code and bill for almost every field of medicine, but it doesn’t stop there.
Hospitals provide many services, such as surgery, that include multiple providers who may be employed by other business entities. Coding must often indicate what kind of facility each of them works for in addition to noting each of the individuals on the surgical team. Hospital services are more expensive than the same services provided in an outpatient setting, so payers require documentation of medical necessity for the hospital, etc. It requires experience and focuses to succeed at hospital billing.
Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing for Hospitals
There are many benefits to outsourcing hospital billing services. Here are a few of the big ones:
Increased Revenue: An effective professional medical billing service will have a system for managing claims that ensure each claim is tracked until it is paid. Hospitals deliver many high-priced services, so a single lost claim can result in the loss of thousands of dollars. With payers cutting reimbursements and expenses rising, hospitals need to make sure they receive the full amount that is due to them.
Fewer employees to pay and manage: In addition to the actual pay of each medical biller, there are standard employee benefits and costs for supervisors and additional HR staff incurred. There is also a need for office space for the billing department that is completely avoided by outsourcing your revenue cycle management to a professional medical billing company like Medcare MSO.
Happier medical staff: The administrative work of medical billing is not fun for medical staff who would much prefer to focus on patient care. Outsourcing hospital billing takes the headache away from them and frees up their time, which makes them more productive as well as more satisfied with their jobs.