Medical billing is a complex procedure of billing and collecting professional fees for medical and healthcare services provided to patients. Doing it right requires a broad range of knowledge and understanding of the medical billing process and health insurance company rules.

When a physician or healthcare provider renders medical services to a patient they are entitled to be reimbursed. Collecting these moneys due is the medical biller's job. After each healthcare appointment the medical biller reviews the Superbill or encounter forms attached to the patient's record to establish which services were provided. Next they re-check the patient's insurance coverage and note the name of the health insurance company. Then they prepare proper invoices and submit the claim.  However, physicians don't have to do everything themselves.  Running a medical office requires a full team of medical office staff with each one playing a vital role to keep the operation going.  Outsourcing medical billing is a viable method for physicians to reduce overhead while increasing quality of health care to their patients.

There are many reasons healthcare practices might outsource their billing to a professional medical billing service; confusing insurance requirements, staffing problems and just keeping up with industry changes are a few examples. In the end though, the reasons most medical billing companies hear about come down to the two driving principles of any business – Time and Money.

Medical Billing Service Saves Operational Time

 Professional medical billing companies, by their very nature, create an economy of scale in maintaining a team of medical billing professionals to provide services across several practices. This structure creates a well trained pool of resources to manage each practice’s needs rather than just one individual overseeing all billing functions. The team approach also removes interruptions to revenue flow that result from vacations, unexpected sick time and staff turnover.

Task specialization among teams further heightens the efficiency of medical billing companies. Through task specialization, a team of billers can accentuates individual skills and reduces distractions of other activities.  Through task specialization, medical billing companies might offer each of its clients several billers submitting claims and reviewing insurance payments with the highest level of accuracy. At the same time, the service might have other individuals or groups dedicated to managing patient invoices and questions across several practices with increased efficiency. This approach maximizes the time available for each activity by specialists with a greater knowledge of their roles, and, again, guarantees minimal (if any) interruption during employee leave and staff changes.

Medical Billing Service Saves Money

Hiring and training new staff, employee benefits, vacation/sick leave, and staff turnover are just a few factors increasing the costs of managing an efficient in-house billing program. Added to the operational overhead of day to day billing, software/hardware maintenance, clearinghouse fees, postage, and so on, the list of expenditures for practices is endless.

Good medical billing companies will design their services around covering all of these costs and immediately do away with the problems they create. To clearly demonstrate how medical billing services can save practices money, let’s compare the core costs associated with in-house medical billing against working with a professional medical billing service.

In evaluating the benefits of outsourcing to a professional medical billing company practices should consider the overall savings in time and money, beyond just minimizing the hassles. Medical billing companies provide knowledge, training, continuity of operations and a network of support leveraging task specialization and the economy of scale. Medical billing companies are able to eliminate dependency on one or two costly staff members to maintain revenue flow for the entire practice.