8 Benefits of Outsourcing Your Medical Billing

Deciding whether or not to outsource medical billing can be a difficult decision for your practice. Medical billing has always required a specialized set of skills, and in the last few years there has been a steep increase in complexity and red tape. Whether you are starting a new practice, an experienced veteran, or in the midst of turmoil like upgrading to a new system or leaving another practice to go out on your own, referring your billing to a specialist makes a lot of sense. It has now become a necessity for practices to consider revenue cycle management services. Profit margins are shrinking due to reduced insurance carrier allowances, increased regulation and carrier red tape. Operating efficiently is now more a matter of survival than it is just good business sense.

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1. Gain Control

Many physicians think that outsourcing medical billing means giving up control to someone else. The opposite is true. By outsourcing billing, doctors can focus on clinical tasks and patient care rather than administrative duties. This gives them MORE control over their primary responsibilities without being bogged down by billing issues. Handling billing in-house requires hiring, training, and managing staff, as well as staying up-to-date with regulations and billing rules (e.g., ICD-10, HIPAA). Outsourcing reduces this burden and simplifies the day-to-day operations.

2. Dedicated, Highly-Trained Specialists

Our billing team has only one purpose, to increase the profitability of your practice. We review all payments to ensure that the carriers are paying the correct amount and prevent incorrect

adjustments. We also resubmit claims and put together appeals packages. Every outstanding claim is tracked until it is processed and paid to its fullest. Don’t think of your billing service as a separate team. We are integrated with your existing staff and have the same goals in mind. Zoo Health is totally aligned with your practice. The better you do, the better we do. Your success as a practice brings us great joy!

3. Consistency

Billing in-house puts your practice at greater risk for revenue interruptions due to planned or unplanned employee absence or staff changes. You no longer have to worry about your billing when employees are out on extended sick leave or vacation. If an employee leaves the practice, there is no training period for a new in-house biller. Those headaches are gone. Cash flow disruptions are eliminated, providing predictable revenues that keep the practice on solid financial ground.

4. A Changing Industry

The healthcare landscape is changing at an unprecedented rate and medical billing is not spared from this upheaval. Keeping up with the ever-changing rules and requirements is difficult under the best of circumstances. It requires constant education and vigilance. New and deleted codes are adjusted annually, fees change, and carrier rules seem to vary daily. Most in-house billers just don’t have the time needed to dedicate to this task.

5. Get Paid Faster

Cash flow is key. Outsourcing your medical billing to Zoo Health results in your claims being paid faster and with fewer errors, so you receive payment from payers in the shortest amount of time possible. Your payments are posted by professionals who look for errors. These claims are examined and resubmitted or appealed as necessary. Zoo Health ensures that your EDI setups are correct, and that insurance payments drop directly into the practice bank account, avoiding paper checks as much as possible. Achieving the highest reimbursement in the shortest amount of time puts money in the bank and not on the books. Do you know what your average Medicare cycle time is? Probably far too long.

6. Focus On What You Do Best

You spent all those years in school to become a doctor so that you could enjoy a career caring for people. Little of that time was spent learning the intricacies of medical billing. Doing your billing in-house requires a lot of time and effort. Even if you’re not the one who actually spends 15 minutes trying to contact a carrier to follow up on a single claim, you will still need to deal with the high-level management and all of the headaches that come with it. A billing service can free up a substantial amount of time that could be spent with patients or for some much-needed R&R. With age comes wisdom, and at some point you may ask yourself, “What is my time worth to me compared to what I can pay someone else?” A billing service is an ideal way to free up your valuable time while maintaining the same patient volume and potentially increasing your revenue at the same time.

7. Less Stress, More Cash

A good billing service will conduct a fee schedule analysis to make sure that you are getting reimbursed at the highest possible rate from your carriers, utilize multiple claim scrubs to ensure that claims are submitted correctly, utilize efficient policies and procedures to reduce your cycle time, and review denials for accuracy. Each EOB/ERA is audited for correct payment, and steps are taken to ensure that you receive accurate reimbursement for your services. Most practices that hire a billing service see a 10-20% increase in revenue, and a decrease in cost that far outweighs the billing service fee. Beware of billing companies that offer a super low fee. These companies will do anything to get you to sign up, then quickly devolve into a nightmare. We’ve cleaned up after more than a few of these companies and we refer to this as the “high cost of low cost billing.” Zoo Health always operates with integrity and transparency.

8. Economies of Scale

A billing service distributes their expenses across the entire client base providing an economy of scale. They can operate at a lower cost than a single practice and those savings are passed on to you. A billing service can afford to hire the best staff possible, so you pay less for the same and often higher collection rates. In addition to the direct financial benefit of higher returns and lower costs (overhead, staff, insurance, hardware…), you will save in the areas of time, stress, and office space. These are just a few of the reasons why it is a good idea to let experts handle your practice’s billing.

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Outsourcing your medical billing offers a wide range of benefits that can transform the way your practice operates. From improving cash flow and reducing administrative burdens to gaining access to highly trained specialists and streamlining billing processes, partnering with a trusted billing service allows you to focus on what matters most, delivering exceptional patient care. By minimizing stress, increasing revenue, and adapting to a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, outsourcing becomes more than a convenience, it’s a strategic move for growth and stability. Whether you’re starting a new practice or looking to optimize an established one, outsourcing your billing can set the foundation for long-term success.