Outsourcing Your Hospital Billing: 4 Things to Know Before You Start
Handing over your billing to a third-party vendor is an appealing decision. One of the biggest draws is that outsourcing has the ability to save your medical practice a significant amount of money, as well as a lot of energy and stress. But just because you want to start outsourcing your hospital billing doesn’t mean you should just go out and do it, let alone hand the reins over to the first vendor you happen across. Before you settle on the decision to outsource, there are a few things that you should know.
#1. Don’t Rush It
Just because you want to outsource, that doesn’t mean that any vendor will do. You will need to do your homework, and learn about your different options to find which vendor will work best for your needs. There’s a lot more to handing over such a large part of your practice than simply hiring a new vendor. Doing so hastily will only result in a number of rather large complications.
Discover why a one-touch patient solution is the best approach!
#2. The Process is Complicated
Giving over the responsibilities of collections to a third-party vendor is a complicated process. There are a lot of rules and regulations surrounding billing and collecting payments, and while handing these responsibilities over is an alluring choice (allowing you to free up your staff to focus more on the patients themselves rather than collecting money), you need to go through all the right channels to ensure a smooth and successful transition. You need to thoroughly vet all the contracts, technology and any other vendors you use and be sure that they align with the ones used by your chosen collections vendor. The process is very involved and should be taken very seriously.
#3. The Larger the System, The Easier It Is
In most cases, the larger the system, the easier it is to make the switch to an outsourcing model. During your search for a vendor, this should be kept in mind. The reason it is easier is because if a small vendor loses one of two or three billers, you will wind up losing a significant amount of billing capacity, which could greatly slow down your collections process. A slow collections process could severely hurt your practice. However, if a large system that has more than 50 billers, for example, loses one or two of its billers, the impact is barely noticeable, and might not affect anything at all, meaning that your collections won’t be affected.
#4. Analyzing Your Organization
When you start the process of outsourcing your billing and collection needs, you really start to analyze how your organization operates. This is due to the fact that the process is so involved. You have to figure out what the responsibilities of your practice are and what the responsibilities of your vendor are. And you have to work with your vendor to figure out exactly how any issues that may arise will be handled. You have to be ready and willing to communicate with your vendor to avoid conflict and tension when a patient has a problem.
You must also take a look at the positions that are being affected by the transition. For instance, if you have previously done billing and collections in-house, those employees are suddenly without a job. It is important that you figure out where these people can go, or help them if you can’t. Unfortunately, there are going to be some losses when you make the switch to outsourcing, but you must be able to handle them as best as you can for the sake of everyone involved.
Outsourcing to a third-party vendor is a tempting option when it comes to dealing with billing and collections. However, before you take the leap and hand over the reins, there are things that need to be considered. The Midland Group can help you to make the transition easier. Contact us today to learn just what we can do for you.
