In the busy medical world, it’s not only the medical practitioners and office managers who run the practice. The staff who are in charge of medical coding and billing are also essential.

It is their responsibility to make sure that all medical billing information is updated to correctly and promptly process the patients’ payments, co-pays, and insurance coverage. This process is a highly complex task, thus being vulnerable to costly human errors – which could have not only financial but also legal repercussions for the practice.

Most dentists and other healthcare providers do not have personnel who have the proper knowledge and skills required to do this job efficiently. Therefore, in order to avoid major problems and a potential downfall of the practice, many medical and dental practices opt to outsource this service to a medical billing company that serves dentists and doctors.

Here are some of the key things that a medical billing company can do for your practice:

Reduce and Simplify Administrative Work

Through partnering with a reputable medical billing company, you would be able to save costs on ongoing training to keep your staff updated with the latest changes in medical coding. This also allows your staff to allocate their time more productively.

Instead of staying on the phone for hours to process a claim, they can spend more time tending to patients about their overall concerns regarding their health, billing, or insurance. This leads to higher-quality care and customer satisfaction for the business. With more focus on patients, dentists and staff members can develop more meaningful relationships with them – which increases patient loyalty.

Achieve Better Cash Flow and Lower Operating Costs

Revenue potential can increase by as much as 30% when you outsource your medical billing service. Billing companies charge flat rates, which is typically much less than the amount you would spend if you hired a full-time billing employee on your staff.

Moreover, companies that solely focus on medical billing have advanced technology and highly trained staff working with an efficient system. You don’t need to purchase, learn, and maintain software to get the job done. All of this ensures that you spend less money while increasing your cash flow.

Eliminate Billing and Coding Errors

Medical billing companies focus on ensuring that insurance claims are correctly filled out and coded. They do not have to juggle other tasks on top of this as your staff would.

These specialized billing firms also stay on top of coding and billing changes, including those stipulated by the federal HIPAA laws. As a result, denied or rejected claims are reduced significantly.

Provide Faster and More Efficient Claims Processing

“Same-day claim submissions” are possible when outsourcing your medical billing because of the automated systems of the medical billing companies. Compare this to the regular paper-based process, which may take as long as two months before the actual reimbursement.

By outsourcing this to a billing company and thereby harnessing their automated system, clean and accurate claims submissions can be performed quickly and without hassle.

Increase Data Safety

Perhaps one of the most significant concerns of healthcare providers today is data safety. Because of HIPAA compliance laws, there are strict federal rules regarding patient confidentiality which dental and medical practices must follow at all times, or a practice could be fined. Data breaches cost the healthcare industry $4 billion in 2019.

Many cases of data breaches, wherein patients’ health records are compromised due to outside hacking or staff carelessness, are the proof of the vulnerability all healthcare providers have. The information is far too valuable in that it can bring in a lot of money when in the wrong hands.

Maintaining an IT system that is capable of safeguarding this information is expensive. This is a key area where outsourcing can help.

If you outsource your billing to a medical billing company, they are now responsible for ensuring that no data breach occurs on your behalf. A reputable billing company will have a sound IT system that is constantly updated and reinforced with data security.

Outsource Your Medical Billing and Collections Services

For dental practices, it is vital to be strategic about how to spend money and make processes more efficient. Outsourcing your medical billing services will significantly reduce operating expenses, increase revenue, and give you an extra layer of protection against legal problems.

Our medical billing and collections experts at Prospa Billing are committed to serving dental practices. If you’d like to find out how we can help your practice, give us a call at (844) 663-3686 or fill out our online contact form for more information. Let’s work together to create a more efficient process for your practice and patients!