Guides

account receivable

Common Accounts Receivables Issues And How To Overcome Them

Are you suffering from recurring errors in your Medical Account Receivable processes? It’s important to know that you are not alone, as there are many common problems that trouble healthcare organizations and obstruct their financial goals. 

Unpaid accounts receivable can seriously damage your cash flow. It is the most critical process in any business. The main reason is poor AR management might result in unhealthy cash flow, and it is hard to manage AR.

In this way, you must employ the correct processes and tools for overcoming the challenges.

Throughout this guide, you’ll learn about 4 common challenges for accounts receivables and how to solve them. 

Let’s have a look!

Problems Relating To Accounts Receivable Management & Solutions

1. Knowledge Deficit

It is crucial to have a deep insight into the multiple reasons for claim denials or delays in payments. However, these problems must be corrected. Providing particular information regarding insurance claims, treatments, or delays is one way to help in implementing these measures. 

The lack of follow-up leads to countless requests for the same issue, which shows a lack of confidence in claims resolution. There is always a solution for any problem. Check out how you can resolve it below.

Solution

  • Train your calling team on a regular basis.
  • To prevent confusion in the protocols, assign callers to specific insurances or physicians.
  • You should make sure your callers pay heed to the call to prevent excessive repetitions.
  • Embedding denial reasoning can simplify call documentation.
  • Callers should review the claim and route it back to the web-follow-up team for cases when the payer does not respond to initial claim requests by phone.
  • Audit the call notes your agents have written frequently.
  • Keeping an eye on your A/R data can help you better understand how efficient your team is.

2. Call Documentation Is Incomplete

It is best to document call notes in a structured manner, either during the call or immediately after. When A/R team members document call notes late, ineffective documentation is generated, and dialed numbers and insurance information are missed. These issues result in ineffective corrective actions that further delay the recovery and payment.

Solution

  • Through the use of objective questions, the caller is guided to gather the right information for specific denial coders (kick codes).
  • In order to standardize call documentation, operations leaders should consider automated documentation capabilities for each of the issues listed above. 
  • An excellent way to retrieve or cross-check missing information is using call recording technologies.
  • Make sure your callers consistently follow your company’s documentation protocol and billing process.
  • Your callers’ calls and collected information should be regularly audited.

3. Denied Insurance Claim

The healthcare organization’s cash flow is negatively impacted by this predictable and frequent AR problem. It is estimated that the denial rate for healthcare is between 10% and 25%. Despite this, MGMA recommends that the best healthcare organizations have a denial rate of only 4%.  

By making simple corrections, you can avoid the significant loss of revenue due to your hospital or organization.

Solution

  • The medical accounts receivable management team must carefully review each claim form before submission so that it meets the guidelines.
  • All denied claims must be investigated and any missing values must be determined and submitted.

4. Unnecessary Write-Offs 

There are some write-offs that are important, and others that do not. You should review each medical account receivable carefully. It is unlikely that the team emphasizes a lower payment amount, but some patients opt to pay in installments. 

Ultimately, these small payments will have a negative impact on your organization’s balance sheet if they are not managed properly. Consequently, you must remember that a quick review of the patient’s every overdue bill could lead to reimbursement for your organization.

 Solution

  • Determine which write-offs require managerial approval. These will help you to accelerate smaller accounts.
  • Monitoring and tracking write-offs will allow you to identify issues with your reimbursement policies and procedures. Using tracking, you can identify the problem associated with higher spikes. 
  • The first step towards reducing unnecessary write-offs is to identify and devise a plan. If you want to create a successful strategy, you need to examine the past data and determine an average write-off rate. Setting a limit for annual write-offs will give you control over them.

5. The Staff Is Unmotivated

Everyone in your organization, from medical providers to administrative staff, should love what they do and should strive to help your organization reach its mission and objectives. 

The bottom line is that if your organization is losing money both on the salary side as well as on the profit side because of a lazy staff, then you should observe the negative impact on the organization’s account.

 Solution

It is highly recommended that you outsource revenue cycle management and receivable management operations to a reliable outsourcing partner, who can diligently implement your requirements with the latest technology and dedicated staff. 

Outsourcing RCM services has many advantages that your organization can compare to hiring in-house staff.

Managing various tasks at once in the healthcare industry is not easy. A top priority of today’s health organizations is to reduce costs and improve efficiency. So, if you are considering outsourcing your revenue cycle management and accounts receivable tasks then it is the best solution for all your healthcare needs.

We at Med-Miles LLC follow a strict audit process to improve your collection process. To learn more visit our Accounts receivable Management services

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optometry billing

Improve Optometry Billing Collections In 6 Easy Steps

The growth and prosperity of an optometric practice depend on continuous revenue flow. A successful business is one that focuses on growing revenue while providing outstanding customer experiences. In healthcare, patients are customers.

It can be overwhelming to deal with optometry billing. The hassles associated with optometry billing can often lead to errors or delays. 

A provider’s practice may still suffer losses despite providing the best possible care due to the complexity and varied policies of different payers. A well-defined payment collection process can prevent this problem.

Therefore, healthcare providers should improve optometry medical billing collection in order to maintain their financial stability. Because a healthy bottom line will help keep your eye care practice on a stronger financial path. 

Want To Improve Your Optometry Billing Collections? 

These 6 easy steps can boost your optometry practice’s collections. 

  • Make Sure The Insurance Payer Has Approved The Provider

In optometric health care billing, the first step is to verify that your provider holds a license from an insurance company.

You need to ensure that you file and follow up on claims as required by the insurance plan. You should take it one step further and contact insurance payers regularly to make sure the providers are registered in the network at the time enrollment is open.

  • Avoid Rejections By Using Correct Modifiers

Many optometrists use CPT® code 92133/92134 and fundus photography code CPT® 92250 for single visit billing. Note: When you do not code this correctly, Medicare can deny payment for both codes and only accept payment for the lowest reimbursement code.

There are three types or categories of five-character codes and two-character modifiers to describe any changes in a procedure and CPT® codes that are published by the American Medical Association®.

Although the NCCI revision allows the modifier to be used for OCT/GDX and fundus photography, you must be careful to use the modifier correctly otherwise this may lead to denials or rejection. 

  • Stay Up-To-Date With The Current Updates 

To make sure you are coding your eye care claims correctly and without error, you should closely monitor the local coverage determinations (LCDs) and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) in your area and make sure you sign up to keep up to date in the payer list.

Optometrists and their staff must be prepared for significant changes in 2021 in the coding and documentation of evaluation and management (E/M) services in optometry. You will have to choose E/M codes depending on which is more appropriate: medical decision-making or overall time, rather than patient history and physical examination of the patient.

  • On-Time Settlement Of Patient Payments

Some patients’ insurance plans include copayments or deductibles. The perfect way to increase collections is to use online payment options from the patients at the time of enrollment.

Doing so will not only increase the speed of the admission process but also improve the patient experience. In this way, collecting payments at the time of enrollment makes the patient journey easier and assures timely payment to keep your practice’s revenue flowing healthily. It will also save lots of your time and effort while helping the collection process be hassle-free and more efficient.

  • Know When To Bill For Regular Vision & When To Bill For Health Insurance 

Many patients have insurance plans for both vision and health insurance. While the best billing practice is to choose a plan to bill based on the patient’s chief complaint and medical diagnosis, it is sometimes more difficult. It is very important to check both vision and medical plans before visiting the office.

  • Create An Efficient Collection Procedure

Most optometry providers are unable to maintain the optimal financial health of their practices in the absence of a well-defined collection process. 

Moreover, failure to properly collect patient information or verify addresses can lead to major losses for your practice.

For this reason, it is important to have efficient optometry billing and collection to create maximum reimbursements for your practice. 

As a healthcare provider, you must collect all the important patient details. You should also train your staff for each step in order to verify the patient’s address and contact information correctly which would be helpful for you to reach them in the future. 

If you collect co-pays and deductibles upfront, it will save your time and ultimately improve your optometry practice collections. 

Looking To Outsource Your Optometry Billing? 

Look no further! We are here to help you optimize all your optometry billing processes. Our team will handle everything from claim denials to maximum reimbursements. Contact us today for a successful optometry practice.

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AR follow-up

Why Is A/R Follow-Up Crucial In Medical Billing?

With the rise in the number of services provided by physicians and hospitals, it is important to recover overdue payments from the insurance companies easily and on time. This is when receivable (A/R) comes into picture accounts.

Why A/R Is Important For Healthcare Services?

In the healthcare industry, the accounts receivable follow-up team is responsible to look after the denied claims and renew them to get maximum reimbursement from the insurance companies.

However, it is important to have a follow-up on your claims after submission in order to reduce the number of days starting from submission to payment. It is important to note that the claim should be submitted within 72 hours after you have provided the services.

Also, in medical billing managing accounts receivable is difficult for the providers. Providers should track their unpaid accounts, assessing payment action, and apply necessary procedures to ensure the complete payment. 

One of the most important parts of managing accounts receivable is to ensure that claims are paid successfully and patients pay all their pending balances.

According to the research survey, it is reported that about 25 % of the patient services which have been rendered are unpaid. 

Moreover, a study has also been conducted by Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services in which they display that only 70% of the medical claims are reimbursed at the first time of submission. 

Others are pending as outstanding accounts receivable which means out of 30 claims 18 are not resubmitted to the payer that will lead to huge financial losses for medical providers. 

Reasons Why A/R Follow-Up Is Important In Medical Billing

The financial stability of every provider relies on positive cash flows. For this reason, follow-up accounts receivable is necessary. 

  • Ensures Financial Stability of the Hospitals

It is important for the healthcare providers to make sure the financial stability of the healthcare services that highly depend on a positive cash flow.

Hospitals should take necessary actions to make a steady cash flow of revenue in order to recover their payments. If you want to grow your practice then accounts follow-up is necessary. 

  • Helps In Collecting All Pending Payments

Worried about your overdue payments? Then track your pending claims to recover the overdue payments without any error. The professional and skilled team will help you in the claim follow-up procedure so that it gets easier for you to receive payments on time.

  • Decreases Time For Outstanding Payments

One of the main objectives of managing accounts receivable is to minimize its time of the accounts that remain outstanding. At this step, the team tracks accounts that have not been paid yet, also evaluates the payment process and implements some necessary procedures to make payment secure. 

  • Claims Never Reach To The Payer

Do you know the biggest reason behind the delay in payments? It happens when insurance companies have not received any claim. But, the question may arise why they have not received any claim. 

There are chances when paper claims are lost. So, we recommend you switch towards the electronic paper form in which you send claims electronically to the insurance companies. 

If you have done claims follow-up and you get to know that the claim has not been received by insurance companies then you should have a focus on another request for the claim. 

  • To Follow-Up On The Denied Claims 

It usually depends on the denial reason, Instead of waiting to get a mail from an insurance company about the reason for denial, you can actually send a new claim request by taking all the necessary actions. It is important for your accounts receivable department to ensure all the claims are followed. 

  • Recover Claims Which Are Pending Information 

It is noted that claims processing is delayed due to additional information needed by the member. Proper tracking allowed the A/R team to learn the member’s situation and then choose appropriate actions to expedite the process.

Steps for Medical Billing A/R Follow-Up 

Following the HOW to follow up on Accounts Receivables, we need to look at the steps of follow-up medical billing. Let’s have a look!

  • Preliminary Evaluation Of A/R Follow Up

This step identifies and evaluates all claims recorded in the aging report. The A/R follows up with the team, which now looks for a corrective course of action by the provider, which helps identify claims that can be corrected.

  • Evaluating Issues With Claims

At this stage, there are various issues analyzed by the team related to claims that are designated as uncollectible or claims for which the insurance company has not yet made payment in accordance with the contracted rates with the providers.

In addition, the appeal/key carrier limits are checked, and the claim address is verified to achieve an optimal treatment unit.

  • Collection From Medical A/R Follows Up

This is a critical phase where different activities are carried on the basis of analyzing issues with claims.

In this phase;

  • All claims are approved if they are within the appeal/fill limit of the insurance company, with proper verification of all necessary billing information.
  • Also, few claims are appealed for the essential supporting documents. Mostly, these claims are paid by the insurance companies. 
  • On the last, claims are now electronically transmitted directly to the insurance companies with the help of clearinghouses. Moreover, these types of claims are followed by the insurance companies for confirmation. 

Why Outsource Your Accounts Receivable To Med-Miles LLC?

It is critical to have a dedicated A/R team who can follow-up with the insurance companies to eliminate denied claims. 

Because, apart from AR, there are many procedures that require appropriate attention such as payment posting, verification, and charge entry that must be completed first. 

By outsourcing your accounts receivables to MED-MILES LLC providers will get relief from all the time-consuming tasks and can focus more on their core competencies.

We will make sure that our team should not have any difficulty in collecting the amount for the services being rendered. Want to connect with our A/R specialist? Call our experts at +1 888-598-9181.

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DATA SECURITY

Keep Data Security And Privacy Top Of Mind

If you have a HIPAA violation, this can cost you more than thousands of dollars. This can ruin your reputation and cause you to lose business. Are you able to afford that risk?

The best interests of patients come first in the medical profession. You must follow rules and procedures to protect and secure patient information.  Failing to do so can potentially risk your patient’s medical records coming out for people to see.

Also, a data breach can cause financial loss to healthcare providers and threatens precious lives of patients by taking down patient record system and smart medical equipment 

Moreover, the Rise in technology and the use of electronics in hospitals can help others get medical records that don’t belong to them by hacking into computer systems. This can result in medical records being compromised.

In to avoid such cases, here are 6 facts you need to know as a medical professional.

1. Protection of Information

As a healthcare professional you should protect your patient’s records. Only authorized people get access to that kind of information. 

One the patient comes to the hospitals for treatment or examination, there will be a medical report prepared about the patient’s status, which is written or electronic

It is up to patients to decide how to share and disclose their medical records. Therefore, HIPAA has provided ways to protect information and reduce the risk of disclosure.

2. HIPAA Violations Can Be Costly

It is important as a healthcare provider to protect your practice from HIPAA violations. Without up-to-date technology and HIPAA regulations, it can put your practice and patients at risk. and safety violations can lead to fines, loss of business, and many other consequences. 

Look at the HIPAA statistics in the infographic below:

hippa facts3. Communications With Patients Should Be Confidential  

According to privacy law, it is important for healthcare providers to keep his/her patients’ conversations confidential. Also, it should not be disclosed to a third party. For example, if a patient insists that the information should be protected between the two of you, then this information should remain unrevealed. 

Besides this also provides patients a form to fill in. This form is clearly about how the information will be used to secure, keep or disclose information. 

4. HIPAA Is Used To Reduce Care Abuse And Fraud

It is a serious offense under the law to abuse and defrauds the healthcare industry. These offenses include: falsifying medical records, obtaining higher payments by altering claim forms, and billing services that were not rendered, among others.  To prove that these crimes were actually committed, the government must and must determine that it was actually intentional, willful, and knowing. 

5. Disclose Patient Information To Its Family 

If the case is severe, the patient’s medical records may be released to the family. This information may be disclosed without the patient’s written consent. Unless the medical records justify releasing the information to the family, the physician has a duty of confidentiality.

When it comes to HIPAA, there are lots of factors to consider, As a Medical practitioner, it’s best to avoid problems with patients and most importantly the government. Following these rules keeps your medical license from being revoked.  

Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a serious act to keep patients safe from privacy violations. To ensure compliance with all the rules, a number of rights have been established.

If you want to keep your practice growing then it is important to follow the guidelines of HIPAA and act according to HIPAA standards. Consider these facts of HIPAA for the success of your Medical practice. Whatever your practice size is, you need to be focused on maintaining proper data privacy and security measures in the healthcare industry 

Need Help with HIPAA?

Here MED-MILES LLC protects all electronic information and assets by fulfilling the CIA triad: protecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information that will help you to protect patient safety and privacy. Also, team med-miles conduct a risk assessment and implement HIPAA compliant administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to ensure patient data privacy and security. If you still worried call us at +1 888-598-9181 

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make practices stand out

How Do You Make Your Practice Stand Out?

In this competitive healthcare field, it is difficult to differentiate your practice from all other practices.

To stand out, you need to separate yourself from the other doctors and prove that you are the best choice who is solving the problems that people are struggling with.

You must know one thing that your patients always have a choice. They can choose you or another practice easily. So, it’s important to think about what makes you unique? We found that patient experience is the core reason for your practice’s success. From pre-care to post-care, patient follow-up is necessary.

So, How do you make your practice stand out to get more patients and increase revenue? Here are 7 ways that you should know. Let’s have a look!

1. Connect and Engage With Your Patients

One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from competitors is to connect with patients and make them feel that you cared for them. Moreover, patient and provider connection is the center of effective delivery of the services. In ancient times, there had been a lot of pressure on the human-to-human healing connection.

If your patients want to connect with you then it means they will keep coming back to you and surely they will recommend you to their friends and family.

As a matter of fact, connecting with your patients doesn’t mean that about how much time you spend with them. It actually means how much you understand them better than others. It is also said in the research that if you understand your patients’ problems it will result in saving time for both of you.

However, the secret to achieving success in healthcare is to give your patients an empathic connection feeling rather than a set of particular words. 

2. Delight Your Patients

Are you giving your patients more than what they would expect from you? It is more important to deliver your patients more than they expected. As it is said that 

“Patient can get a prescription anywhere, but they can’t get that experience everywhere”

Well, you know that patients can go anywhere to get their treatment. In this technological era, it is easy for patients to talk to a doctor from the other side of the globe and get a prescription.

However, it is important for you to make your patients a reason to choose you as compared to personalized service. How would you do that? The answer is as simple as it is “Delighting your patients”

Now, you will understand that a patient’s experience is key to your practice’s success. So, don’t ignore this if you want to stand out from the competition. 

3. Be Responsive To Your Patients Online

Regardless of your practice size, it is annoying if your patients have to wait on the phone to talk to customer service. For that reason, it is important for you to use a secure communication system for your practice, which immediately translates patient phone messages into text that will allow you, administrative staff, to quickly respond to patient’s questions or direct them to the suitable provider. This all is private, secure, and meets all the HIPAA regulations.

Make sure to respond to your patients within 2 hours or faster because people don’t like to wait on the phone to talk to you. What they actually want is to feel cared for. Provide them a variety of open, flexible touchpoints for communication.

Therefore, having secure, demanding, and communication platform signals is important to understand your patient’s needs.  

4. Train Your Team

Train your staff today to get a great first impression. Because your team will get to interact with your patients before they come to you. You should address the patient’s questions to your staff regarding your practice.

Give them details about the services you provide and also tell them other specific details such as pricing, equipment that are used during procedures, etc.

5. Improve Ratings and Reviews

To make your practice grow or stand out then you should actively improve ratings and reviews. As it is one of the most efficient ways to attract new patients. 

According to research, 72% of patients use online reviews to find a new doctor. So, if you aren’t actively monitoring review sites, you will be losing a huge opportunity to attract new patients.

What you need to do is encourage your patients to share their feedback in an online review. This would be done simply by sending a follow-up email thanking your patients for their visit and encourage them to review you online. 

There are also other ways such as offering discounts or free services to provoke patients for posting positive reviews of your practice.

You can also share your patient’s review publicly on your website that will help you to make a stronger patient relationship and to get your identity out there.

6. Use Technological Advances

Nowadays your patient’s only need is to get a technologically connected healthcare experience. Are you giving them that experience or not? If not, then it’s the right time to switch towards technological advances and provide your patients’ cost-effective technical updates.

If you think it is costly for you to get technological equipment then outsource your all technological needs to us. We at Med-Miles LLC provide you with consultancy services that will help you to focus on your core business.

7. Be Specific

Want to make your practice stand out from the rest? Then be specific about your positioning. Your practice can’t be all things to all people. So, be specific in what actually is as a medical professional? Or as a practitioner? 

If you are clearer about your position then you will attract more prospective patients for what they are looking for. 

Now, you understand that your patients are the center of your practice success. So, improve your practice performance by using the ways above mentioned. If you will not do it today then you would stand last among your competition. 

 

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Healthcare Trends

Top 8 Healthcare Trends In 2021

As hospitals, health systems, and patients increasingly relied on digital health technologies for quality care during COVID. At this stage payers and providers are looking for ways to minimize costs, enhance care, create awareness, and broaden relationships.

To understand better where the medical technology industry is headed, examining key technology trends is paramount.

Let’s have a look at healthcare technology trends in 2021. 

1. Real-Time Use Of Data and Advanced Analytics

With the rise in technology, the future of healthcare will be characterized by the re-engineering of clinical care and digital health operations with the wide use of real-time data and analytics.  

Real-time analytics will help hospitals to have a 360-degree view of the patient. With the use of real-time data and advanced analytics, the healthcare industry can deliver proactive care, improve healthcare outcomes, reduce hospital readmissions, and improve all-round efficiency.

2. Cloud-Based Technologies

The current environment of healthcare has underlined the value of improving workflows, achieving greater efficiencies, and better-integrating data across organizations by the use of important resources such as remote process automation, national language processing, and cloud-based technologies. 

With the use of cloud-based technologies, the efficiency of the industry can be increased while reducing the costs. This technological trend has made medical record sharing easier and safer than before. In addition, it also automates backend operations to make the industry efficient. 

3. Build a Multi-Channel Digital Experience Portfolio

Today, more than ever, healthcare organizations need to develop a portfolio of multi-channel digital services to offer customized, consumer-centric services that promote engagement and reduce costs.

4. Advanced APIs and Interoperability

As the healthcare industry is now relying more on cross-platforms such as EHR, EMR, CMS, CRM, and virtual health, etc. Advanced APIs and Interoperability can ensure safe and efficient sharing of data to reduce inefficiency, confusion, and ultimately patient experience. 

Healthcare APIs act as a bridge to allow seamless communication and help to increase efficiency and productivity so that you can deliver better patient care. 

5. Telehealth and Remote Care Expansion

While CMS and large payers have relaxed telehealth regulations to help providers continue to provide care safely during a pandemic, hospitals and health systems will continue to consider how to incorporate virtual care as part of their long-term post-pandemic public health care strategy.

The pandemic also accelerated progress in remotely managed care for both patients with chronic conditions and those who have COVID-19 but do not need hospitalization. 

These advances signal a shift toward a hybrid model of care that will largely replace in-person visits with both telehealth visits and in-person visits for services ranging from the follow-up to acute care.

6. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technology

By having greater access to healthcare data, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology can provide faster and deeper insights to assess and predict outcomes that help improve patient care.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are not new in the healthcare industry. Many organizations already used AI and machine learning in hospital administration and operations for years, more specifically in the revenue cycle process.

By combining wearables and other biomedical devices, combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, it will continue to transform clinical research, treatment protocols, and increase the virtual care capabilities of medical professionals.

Moreover, it also enables healthcare to bring data to the forefront and improve patient care outcomes. 

7. Social Determinant of Health Strategies

Organizations will continue to look for social determinants of health strategies to help understand health disparities – including those highlighted by COVID-19 infections – and to mitigate some of the financial strains of providing high-quality care.

8. Greater Price Transparency

Moving towards greater market transparency will put healthcare organizations in compliance and also help satisfy patient demand, increase patient engagement, and even point to services. By encouraging transparency about price and quality, health plans can promote more cost-effective use of health care services by both patients and providers.

With the rise in transformation, it’s important to know new healthcare trends in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of the healthcare industry. If you need help, our experts are helping the largest providers and payers with comprehensive solutions. 

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In-House

In-House vs. Outsource Medical Billing – Which One Is Best?

It has always been a discussion or debate on whether medical bills should be outsourced or kept in-house. To be fair, this is not a hard and fast rule.

It depends on the dynamics and visions of organizations. It also differs from practice to practice based on multiple factors: age of the business, size of clinical staff, and the financial health of a healthcare organization. So, there can’t be one rule that fits all

In-House Medical Billing vs. Outsourcing – What’s the Difference?

In-house medical billing refers to the medical billing process in your medical practice office. There will be a team sitting in your organization of place of medical practice. Oppositely in outsourcing, all of your medical billing will be conducted through a third-party organization.

Whether it’s in-house medical billing or outsource medical billing, both aim to accomplish the same goals that are to prepare and submit claims and ensure accounts receivables faster.

In this blog, we provide you a complete difference between In-house medical billing and outsource medical billing, so you can make a decision about which is right for your practice.

In-House Billing Pros

When we talk about the in-house medical billing process it seems ideal for any billing company to have an in-house team for medical billing. But, in reality, it is not. 

In-house medical billing is beneficial for only large companies because they can afford high-cost equipment and technologies. In-house has its own advantages. 

Let’s have a look at it.

Complete Control

The first and foremost benefit of in-house medical billing is to have complete control of everything. For the execution of billing activities, there are employees so that it is easier for healthcare providers to give instructions and implement all the standard procedures without any difficulty. 

Return on Investment

By managing in-house medical billing, you can check the cost of every little process. It will be under your control. Which results in a higher return on investment and increased revenues. 

Read Also Why Should You Outsource Your Medical Billing?

In-House Medical Billing Cons

Still, there are some cons to the in-house medical billing process. Let’s also have a look at them.

Higher Costs

The most important disadvantage of in-house medical billing as it involves a lot of capital in equipment, latest technologies, and software. 

Besides all this you also require a skilled billing team, for this, you have to invest in the recruitment of a team which may lead to the financial loss of your practice.

Liabilities

When you hire an in-house medical billing, your liabilities will tend to go up because it requires a lot of cash flow and expenses that have to be paid. However, by outsourcing, your liabilities will become lesser and allow you to get enough credit period. 

Support Issues

One of the major issues with in-house teams is the support system. It is difficult to manage your billing process without adequate resources. When you manage your billing process on your own, you will need optimum resources to serve your clients. It is really a challenging task to have your in-house medical billing team.

Outsourcing Medical Billing Pros

Why do you need to outsource? Simply because you want to get benefit from it. Here are some benefits of outsourcing medical billing to a third- party.

Cost-Effective

The major benefit of outsourcing medical billing is that it is highly cost-effective. 

When the operational and customer support work of the medical practice is outsourced to the third-party medical billing company, the cost will automatically go down. 

This is because of the currency conversion that makes it viable for business. Things like infrastructure, expertise, procedures come at a lower cost. However, outsourcing medical billing is profitable for healthcare providers. 

Transparency

By outsourcing, a specific set of standard processes, systems, and procedures can be created. Consequently, the medical company knows each and every detail that goes on through outsourcing. 

In addition, software tools are used to monitor and manage billing processes on a day-to-day basis. In short, outsourcing medical billing tasks will bring transparency.

Consistency

Consistency is the key solution for any business. When you choose the right medical billing company you can see consistent growth in your practice. Also, the outsourced company has skilled billers and coders who put effort to deliver consistent results.

Easy to Expand

Outsourcing billing tasks will give you the benefit of expanding faster. You don’t need to invest in infrastructure, recruitment, and training. All is done by the Medical billing company.

More Focus On Patient Care

Nowadays, medical billing has become a daunting task for healthcare providers. This time-consuming and overwhelming task will divert the provider’s precious time and prevent patients from receiving quality treatment. 

Through outsourcing, medical practitioners can focus more on patients and will be able to provide better service to their patients.

Accuracy

With a team of experts and their vast experience, medical billing companies will help you to get paid faster without any error. They are used to the process of getting payment efficiently.

Compliance With The Standard Medical Practices

By outsourcing your medical billing, there is no issue of compliance. Medical billing outsourcing companies have trained staff and teams that will help you in getting compliance with HIPAA standards.

Faster Claims

As mentioned earlier, most of the leading medical billing outsourcing companies have extensive experience in this area. Hence, this makes the claims process easier and quicker. 

Outsourcing companies handle the tracking and collection of payments. When claims are received on a regular basis, it will benefit the medical practitioners to have a steady cash flow. 

Outsourcing Medical Billing Cons

While having a lot of benefits, outsourcing medical billing is not without cons. Here are some issues faced by the outsourcing company:

Less control

When the majority of operations will be outsourced, then you will lose control. If there is any delay in reports or data transformation, it will affect healthcare providers in terms of claim collection and their practice reputation.

Variable Cost

Variable cost is another issue of outsourcing billing. When companies grow, variable costs will also increase.

Want to get financial benefits for your practice? By looking into the comparison above, it is easy for you to make a decision which one is the best option according to your practice. If you prefer in-house medical billing there will definitely come a time when you will face the need for an outsourcing company for medical billing.

So going to an outsourcing company after why not go first hand? If you had made up your mind of going for a third party in order to have the medical billing outsourced. We recommend you do your medical billing through us. Why is that? Find out for yourself via Why Med Miles for billing outsourcing?

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Telemedicine Concerns

7 Telemedicine Concerns For Health Care Providers and How to Overcome Them

With the rise in the area of technology, telemedicine comes with convenience for the tech-savvy population.

It is reported that telemedicine is overgrowing with an increase of 16.8% from 2020 to 2023. Moreover, more than 50% of hospitals in the United States uses telemedicine due to its cost efficiency and easy access to healthcare services. 

Telehealth reduces healthcare costs and waiting time. For healthcare providers, it increases productivity and profitability also encourages more patient engagement.

These Advantages, Then Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It?

Over time it has been observed that the healthcare providers are being hesitant in taking the telehealth service as their possible preference. Possibly there can be many reasons for this.

As technology advances, healthcare innovation has expanded its usability. However, there are new increasing pains for programs at every level of care.

At times of high demand for medical services, telemedicine services are becoming more and more popular. 

In the world of unprecedented changes, health treatment centers have been challenged to develop telehealth services quickly- care patients remotely when health care providers and patients are not physically present.  

However, today’s environment has completely changed from face-to-face to screen-to-screen experience. 

Currently, telehealth covers the majority share of the market today. For this reason, there are important and reasonable concerns that healthcare providers and patients should overcome. 

In this blog, we addressed solutions to the top 7 concerns of telemedicine. let’s have a look.

Reimbursement

With telemedicine services, it gets difficult for providers and physicians to get reimbursed. For instance, Medicare provides telemedicine reimbursement coverage along with limitations. 

It is possible to reimburse expenses for services included in the Medicare Chronic Treatment Program, such as services for patients with at least two or more chronic diseases. 

These diseases must persist for at least one or more years, or until death, to consider reimbursement claims.

To overcome barriers to cost recovery, it will help to own a settlement program that comprises using technology to better track down the reimbursements claims.

You can make use of a platform that monitors those costs to correctly record the receipts required by insurance companies while, at the same time, being conscious of reimbursement claims.

Lack Of Integration

You probably face difficulties in your workflow due to a lack of EHR integration. Your electronic health records (EHR) doesn’t properly integrate with the platform that you are using to deliver telehealth services. 

If you outsource your telemedicine then the outsourcing company will help you in integrating the EHR. Thus helping you record the workflow and ensure that each visit is correctly recorded and upgraded for future appointments.

Lack Of Information

The absence of platform integration can also disrupt the continuity of care. 

For example, suppose a patient receives telemedicine from one service provider but chooses another for the next electronic visit. In that case, the second doctor may not have all the information needed to diagnose the patient’s problem. 

However, to overcome this obstacle, you have to find out where your patient has received previous telemedicine services, including those established in hospitals and organizations that provide services with other health care providers.

Patient Awareness

The most important concern of telemedicine is patient awareness. If your patients are not aware of your telemedicine services, then they can’t use that service. 

About 96% of large companies intend to offer telemedicine solutions with their own employees. This is just a missed opportunity when your patients aren’t aware that you’re offering those services.

For this reason, it is important to plan for patient awareness. If your practice includes the platform like social media platforms, blogs, or email, you will not find any difficulty telling your patients about your telemedicine services. 

Lack of Technical Skills

Telemedicine services are provided even in remote areas where there is a lack of technical skills. Mostly in these areas, patients don’t understand how to use telemedicine services. 

However, it can reduce utilization and hinder accessibility. To facilitate this, it is best to survey your patients before the beginning of telemedicine services.

Ask your patients about which device they use while accessing your telemedicine services.

Also, it is equally important to train your staff to assist patients who need help easily. 

High Equipment Cost

Adding up the cost of equipment and services to provide medical care, the cost of telemedicine can be a problem for doctors, hospitals and medical practices.

You might be able to reduce costs by choosing a package of services or those that offer a fixed fee while keeping in mind that as the use of telemedicine increases, the cost of technology and services will continue to decline.

Security Concerns

Most of the time with telemedicine services, your patient data is not protected, causing privacy issues while accessing patient data through the internet. 

However, to overcome privacy issues, there are security rules provided by HIPAA. By following these rules, your information gathered through a telemedicine service is encrypted. Or as a healthcare provider, you should choose an outsourcing platform like Med Miles LLC which complies with each rule set by the HIPAA.

If you have just started and need to overcome, these concerns contact us at +1 888-598-9181. We at Med-Miles assist you in telemedicine services concerns so that you can easily deliver quality care to patients. 

By overcoming these obstacles, you can transform and modernize your practice. With these solutions, you can attain better practice performance and enjoy happy patients.

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