4 Reasons to Hire a Billing and Coding Specialist Team
It's no surprise to anyone who has ever hired a billing and coding specialist that doing so can significantly increase your bottom line. In fact, medical billing and coding specialists are often regarded as the best return on investment for practices and clinics. If you run your practice without an experienced and professional billing and coding specialist team on board, you're costing yourself money and doing yourself (and all of your patients) a disservice.
Billing and coding specialists are essential to the success of any medical practice. These professionals are trained to ensure that your practice is billing and coding accurately, maximizing revenue opportunities, and protecting against potential fines from Medicare or other government agencies.
Here are some reasons you should hire a billing and coding specialist:
1. Improve cash flow:
Medical billing and coding specialists can help increase cash flow for your practice by getting reimbursements you might miss, and ensuring they are submitted on time.
A billing and coding specialist is a great resource to have on your team because they know the ins and outs of medical billing. They understand what information needs to be provided for insurance companies, which can help you avoid any unnecessary denials or delays in payment.
Medical billing specialists also know what is necessary to get paid from Medicare and Medicaid, as well as any other third-party payers that your practice works with. This knowledge can help ensure that all claims are submitted correctly, which will lead to faster payment from the insurance company or government entity.
2. Avoid penalties for incorrect coding:
Medical billing and coding specialist will help you avoid penalties and delays by accurately submitting your claims. A medical billing and coding specialist team ensure that your insurance claims are submitted accurately, so you avoid any penalties or delays. They will also help you reduce the number of denials on your claims, which can be a huge cost-saving for your practice.
In addition, a medical billing and coding specialist will make sure that your office is compliant with all federal regulations regarding billing and coding procedures. This means that if you have any problems with your claims being denied by Medicare or Medicaid due to improper documentation, the specialist will be able to help fix them quickly so that they can be paid in full without delay.
3. Increase revenue potential:
Medical billing and coding specialists know a lot more about what you can bill for and how to do it, which will expose money for your practice you would otherwise miss.
A trained specialist not only knows the ins and outs of the billing and coding process but continually stays up to day with the latest rules and regulations. Having someone on your staff or yourself try to do that in addition to their full-time role is nearly impossible with how much changes from year to year not to mention inefficient.
Just like anything else, expertise can mean the difference between getting it done well and getting it done right, and as a practice owner or medical professional, you don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s okay. But in order to grow your practice you need to start making sure your team isn’t wearing a lot of hats and not focusing on their core role, which leads us to our last point…
4. Reduce employee turnover:
If it’s you that’s doing the billing and coding as the head of the practice, it might not lead to you leaving your business (or it might) but it definitely will impact the practice. Having your medical staff do it definitely will.
If you don’t hire a dedicated billing and coding team member (we’ll talk about the pros and cons of hiring this role in another article) then it falls on the entire team to manage this part of the business and as we discussed above, likely leave a lot of money on the table. The fact is that your medical staff likely doesn’t enjoy this work and the more that it pulls them away from patients, the more likely your staff will burn out, along with all of the other responsibilities you all have to maintain.
It’s a big choice and investment but there are options that don’t break the bank to bring this kind of expertise into your business and if it also means you extend the longevity of your staff, the investment will definitely pay for itself.
Conclusion:
There's no question that having a medical billing and coding specialists team in-house can significantly streamline the billing process, as well as help to ensure compliance with established coding standards and procedures. You'll be able to ensure that all patients are helped promptly, efficiently, and effectively. If you're looking to improve your practice, hiring a medical billing and coding specialists team may very well be the way to go.
Foothill Practice Management offers affordable billing and coding expertise for practices throughout the US. Reach out to us to learn how we can help your practice thrive.