Deciding to outsource medical billing for your practice or hospital or keep it in-house isn’t always an easy decision to make. But there are key indicators to look for that can help make the decision a bit easier.
Scalability
One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing medical billing to a revenue cycle management (RCM) partner is their ability to scale up and down based on patient volume. During the past three years, all practices and hospitals have seen enormous ebbs and flows in their patient volume. An RCM partner can supply the necessary resources when you have high patient volumes to ensure your billing is up to date. Likewise, when you see a dip in patient volume, your RCM partner will scale down their resources, so you aren’t paying for time or services that you don’t need.
Transparency
Do you find yourself wondering why reimbursement isn’t as high as you thought it should be? Or, if there are coding trends and changes that you should be making to optimize reimbursement?
If so, an outsourced medical billing company could be the answer you’re looking for. Most RCM companies offer real-time analytics and reporting so you can see and sort all of your patient and billing data whenever you’d like to. For example, Gryphon Analytics, our client platform, allows clients to pull and sort patient demographics, billing amounts by code and/or carrier, or any combination of custom information. Analytics such as these better inform you about the health of your revenue cycle while your billing partner makes adjustments and changes to ensure you’re receiving optimal reimbursement for services provided.
Cash Flow Lag
Is there a long lead time between when you bill patients and receive payment? If so, you’re likely dedicating staff hours (overhead) to collections for a fixed amount of compensation. In other words, you’re going to work more hours for the same dollar! When you outsource medical billing, accounts receivable and collections teams work each patient account by making phone calls, sending mail notices, and email reminders as needed. This means you don’t have to dedicate staff hours to the task of collections, and you increase the likelihood of a shorter pay cycle because you have a dedicated team working on billing and collections for you.
Accuracy and Timeliness
An outsourced medical billing partner’s income is tied directly to your billing. This means they are highly incentivized to ensure that all patient visits and charges are captured and submitted in a timely manner. If you have questions about the accuracy of your charge capture or the timeliness that bills are submitted by your in-house medical billing team, it might be time to look to an outside RCM partner for help.
Patient Experience
Have angry patients called your office about a bill they just received for a visit three months prior? This is a common tale, and like it or not, billing is tied directly to the patient experience. Decreasing the time between patient visits and billing makes patients happier, and ensures you have shorter time periods between when you treat patients and when you receive compensation and payer reimbursement.
If any of these situations sound familiar, it’s time to talk to a revenue cycle management company about outsourcing your medical billing. Gryphon Healthcare is a full-service revenue cycle management company started by physicians, nurses, administrators and facility managers that decided to find ways to improve cash flow, push back on insurance carriers, and get the reimbursement and compensation we deserved. Now we’re helping companies like yours do the same.
Schedule a call with our RCM team today to discuss the billing needs of your organization and how Gryphon Healthcare can help! In the meantime, we’ve put together a resource about how an outsourced medical billing partner can help you save time, energy, and money. Fill out the form below and we’ll send the download directly to your inbox!
5 Ways to Improve your Medical Billing Process