Medical professionals face immense pressure in their jobs. Between treating patients, managing staff, and running the business side of their practices, there’s little time left for handling tedious administrative tasks One such duty, medical billing, often gets neglected, resulting in claim denials, lost revenue, and frustrated staff Fortunately, outsourced medical bill pay services offer a much-needed solution.
The Challenges of In-House Medical Billing
Submitting insurance claims and collecting patient payments in-house presents several obstacles for medical practices:
-
Complexity of coding and claims Medical billing follows intricate rules set by insurance payers Claims get denied for even small errors in coding or submission protocols. Staff must stay current with payer guidelines across hundreds of plans offered by private insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid This requires extensive, ongoing training.
-
Burdensome administrative tasks Billers spend hours on follow-up calls, appeals, reporting, and other clerical duties The average cost to rework a denied claim is $25-$50 With staff turnover, these repetitive tasks often fall through the cracks.
-
Payment delays: Insurers take weeks or months to reimburse claims. Meanwhile, practices must cover operating costs. Delayed payments lead to cash flow problems.
-
Limited collection success: Collecting patient responsibility from high deductible plans is difficult for billers who lack collections expertise. Patients tend to ignore bills from their own doctor’s office. Unpaid claims quickly turn into bad debt.
Outsourcing billing and collections to a professional service solves these problems for medical practices.
Benefits of Outsourced Medical Bill Pay
Third-party medical bill pay services offer practices easy, legal billing as well as reliable management of the revenue cycle:
-
Expertise and efficiency: Outsourcers employ teams of specialized medical billers. Their exclusive focus on billing makes them experts at submission protocols, error resolution, and collections. High volumes create economies of scale unachievable in-house.
-
Up-to-date payer knowledge: Outsourcers track guidelines and changes across hundreds of insurance plans. This prevents costly claim denials from incorrect or outdated billing practices. Their expertise keeps revenue flowing smoothly.
-
Complete revenue cycle management: Outsourced services go beyond billing to provide full-service revenue cycle management. This includes verifying patient benefits, coding claims, submitting to payers, resolving rejections, collecting payments, and providing analytics.
-
Accelerated reimbursement: Skilled outsourced billers get claims paid promptly by payers. Their persistence and know-how speeds up claim resolution. Faster reimbursements improve practice cash flow.
-
Higher collections: Specialized medical collection agents achieve higher recovery rates from patients. Sensitive account management preserves patient goodwill. Reduced bad debt improves revenue.
Choosing the Right Medical Bill Pay Vendor
Not all outsourcers are created equal. Here are key factors for picking the right partner:
-
Industry experience: Look for established vendors (10+ years) focused solely on medical billing. Their longevity indicates proficiency. Generalized collection agencies lack the medical billing nuances.
-
Staff expertise: Seek out companies employing specialized, certified medical billers. Their dedicated expertise leads to better claim outcomes. Turnover is common in outsourcers, so inquire about staff training and tenure.
-
Compliance record: Verify state licenses and certificates required for medical claims processing. Review the company’s history; check for complaints or legal issues. Proper compliance protects your revenue and reputation.
-
Client references: Talk to current clients about their experience. Quality of service, timeliness, communications, and staff professionalism vary widely between vendors. Client feedback provides the best indicator of satisfaction.
-
Payer acceptance: Ask whether the vendor submits claims directly to payers under their own provider number or under yours. Direct submission avoids delays but requires extensive payer enrollment.
-
Analytics platform: The ability to access billing reports and metrics is essential for monitoring revenue cycle effectiveness. Evaluate each vendor’s analytics tools for depth of data, flexibility, and ease of use.
-
Security standards: Ensure the outsourcer has robust data security, including encrypted storage and transmission. Ask about their processes, technologies, and audits. Protecting patient data is paramount.
The Game Changer: National Medical Professionals
Among outsourced medical bill pay providers, National Medical Professionals (NMP) stands out as an industry leader. For over 25 years, NMP has offered exceptional outsourced billing, coding, collections and revenue cycle management exclusively to the healthcare industry.
NMP’s seasoned medical billing specialists maximize reimbursements using optimized workflows, advanced analytics, and proprietary denial prevention tools. Their unparalleled claim acceptance rates reduce write-offs and accelerate payments. Compassionate patient collections, customized payment plans, and sensitivity to patient experience set NMP apart. Sophisticated analytics deliver transparency into the entire revenue cycle, enabling data-driven performance improvement.
NMP holds earned HFMA Peer Review status, demonstrating effectiveness of their rigorous financial practices. Their client retention rate of over 95% validates their outstanding service. Industry recognition includes Black Book’s #1 End-to-End Revenue Cycle Management Services and Top 10 Patient Payment Services.
For medical professionals seeking streamlined billing, accelerated revenue, and reduced stress, NMP provides an end-to-end outsourced solution proven to optimize the entire revenue cycle. Their expert bill pay services relieve the administrative burden to help practices prosper.
For information on the Change Healthcare cyber response:
We make it easy to find and pay your bill, see your medical records, make appointments and connect with your care team.
Even Medical Professionals don’t understand the NHI – National Health Insurance | Dr. Kgosi Letlape
What does national medical billing services do?
National Medical Billing Services does the job right from start to finish. Our system speeds up the entire process, from data entry to claims submission. The tremendous growth of managed care has brought with it a staggering increase in the number of payer denials.
How can national medical billing services help with denials?
Appealing denials is part of this, but at National Medical Billing Services our services go way beyond that to help physicians, hospitals and clinics solve denial problems rather than just address them. We do the job right from start to finish.
How do I contact the billing service?
For insurance or third-party payers, please contact our billing service at 1.844.706.9577 or fax requests to 616.464.9645. Patient resources for billing, record requests, patient privacy, non-discrimination and other frequently asked questions.
How do I pay my medical bill?
When you receive your bill from a medical provider, it includes options for paying the bill. In most cases, you can pay online using a credit card or (less often) a direct debit from one of your accounts. You also can pay by telephone.