If you own a chiropractic practice, you’ve likely wondered whether you should maintain an in-house billing staff or outsource your billing to a third-party company. Billing and revenue cycle management are crucial to chiropractors wanting to ensure business sustainability. Inefficient management of chiropractic billing and collections leads to delays in reimbursements, underpayment, and even erroneous denials and rejections.
In this article, we’ll cover the advantages of outsourcing chiropractic billing to a third-party vendor, looking at both cost and qualitative factors.
Chiropractic Billing Services
Advantages of Outsourcing Chiropractic Billing
1. Outsourcing can save you money
By outsourcing your chiropractic billing, you could save thousands of dollars in annual salaries and employee benefits. Chiropractic billing companies typically charge a percentage of the reimbursement on each claim. This is less costly than what you would pay for chiropractic billing staff to provide the same services that are offered by outsourcing companies.
2. Less stress. More cash
A good outsourced chiropractic billing service will only charge a percentage of the money that they collect. The less money that is erroneously adjusted off or the fewer claims sent out incorrectly means more money in your pocket. A good billing service will also conduct a fee schedule analysis to make sure that you are getting reimbursed at the highest possible rate for your Payers, utilize multiple claim scrubs to ensure that claims are submitted correctly, utilize efficient policies and procedures to reduce your cycle time, and their experienced staff will review denials for accuracy. Each EOB is audited for correct payment, and steps are taken to ensure that you receive accurate reimbursement for your services. A good billing service works hard to improve your collection rate because if you make more, they make more. Most practices that hire a billing service see an increase in revenue and a decrease in cost that far outweighs the billing service fee.
3. Billing professionals are less likely to make errors
Experienced chiropractic billers and coders can ensure that your claims are accurately submitted in a timely manner. The sole purpose of the chiropractic billing company is to provide chiropractic billing services. It is their responsibility to ensure that the billers they hire undergo thorough training and are equipped with the knowledge to properly submit chiropractic claims. Not only will this reduce the number of denied and rejected claims due to billing errors, but will also provide feedback to assist in maximizing reimbursements on future claims.
4. Outsourcing improves cash flow
What happens when your biller calls out or goes on vacation? More often than not, claims have to wait until they come back to work in order to be submitted. Billing interruptions ultimately affect the timeliness of reimbursements and your cash flow. Using a chiropractic billing service ensures a continuous, steady flow of claims going out and cash coming in. A steady cash flow is important for your bottom line and the success of your chiropractic office.
5. Outsourcing ensures billing compliance
Health care is an ever-changing industry and insurance companies are partly to blame. One reason that makes chiropractic billing a challenge is keeping up with the changes in Medicare, Medicaid, and third-party payers. It is a full-time job to make sure that the chiropractic office is following the proper protocol required by each payer. Chiropractic billing companies must stay up-to-date on the latest changes in regulations and requirements in order to maintain compliance and ensure the submission of clean claims.
These are just a few of the reasons why it’s a good idea to outsource your chiropractic billing to a team of billing specialists. There are some exceptions to the rule where it may be better to do it on your own. For instance, if a large part of your practice provides cash services or your population is mainly self-pay, you may consider doing it yourself.
While outsourced chiropractic billing services can offer a significant benefit to chiropractic practices, it’s important to choose the right one. Selecting the wrong partner can tie up the practice’s money and possibly cause payments to fall through the cracks.