How Can Medical Billing and Coding help you Increase Cash Flow?

The healthcare sector is expected to generate more than 2.8 million new jobs by 2022, with almost 30% of that increase being attributed towards medical billing and coding jobs. There is no denying the fact that medical billing and coding is exceptionally important today in the healthcare industry, especially with increasing costs and decreasing reimbursements plaguing most healthcare practitioners.

As a result, there is an increased urgency for find simple and inexpensive methods to streamline medical coding and billing processes and make them more transparent. At the same time, due to their small sizes or limited resources, most medical practitioners often lag behind when it comes to keeping up with the latest medical coding, medical billing, and medical reimbursement guidelines.

4 Medical Billing and Coding Tips for Improved Cash flow

The medical billing and coding scenario has undergone significant changes in the past few years, including the disruptive, but eventually helpful introduction of ICD-10. These, and many other changes, such as increased scrutiny on payment errors, have made life tougher for people involved in medical billing and coding. At the same time, by streamlining your processes and identifying the hurdles, you can turn your medical billing and coding department into one of the most profitable parts of your business.

Here's a list of the top medical billing and coding tips for improved cash flow -

1. Outsource your Medical Coding and Billing Requirements

   

   Contrary to what many believe, it is easier to outsource medical billing and coding for improved financial performance while reducing costs and employee recruitment hassles. Once you choose your designated service provider, it is only a matter of time before you can start reaping the benefits of outsourcing, including -

   • Reduced cost of maintaining high-end software and equipment
   • Reduced call volumes
   • Elimination of hiring and training costs
   • Ability to focus on patient care
   • Elimination of "non-medical" office space for better organization
   • Lesser negative effect of worker turnover and churn

   Outsourcing not only helps you keep a tab on all the insurance providers who owe you money, but also gives you the free time to pursue overdue balances.

2. Ensure Proper Processes are in Place and Never Deviate from Them

   

   If you prefer to perform your medical billing and coding in-house, then it is necessary to warrant that proper processes are implemented and adequate measures are taken to ensure that the patients get the best service. It is important to remember that your cash flow is directly tied to your patients' satisfaction with your services. You should have set processes for -

   • Accurate coding
   • Proper billing methods
   • Claims submission on time
   • Reliable Compensation through Insurance providers

3. Use Electronic Coding, Billing, and Reimbursement Solutions

   

   Medical billing and coding is under increased scrutiny of payers nowadays due to frequent payment errors and overpayments. As a result, simple and inexpensive methods might not always work because of the human errors involved. On top of that, payers also continuously keep changing their billing and coding requirements, as a result of which medical practices need to be on the top of their game when it comes to submitting accurate bills.

   By adopting the latest technology in electronic billing, coding, and reimbursement solutions, you stand to gain from better clean claim rates and reduced payment related errors, all of which directly affect your cash flow. Some of the other benefits of adopting the latest electronic medical billing and coding techniques include -

   • Reduced payment processing time
   • Reduced denial rates
   • Better reimbursement rates
   • Reduced errors while coding
   • Improved compliance to federal guidelines and regulations
   • Reduced overhead costs

4. Streamline Your Collection Procedures

   

   The amount of time spent by your back-office in making collections directly affects your businesses' cash flow. Manual collections result in a large amount of paperwork, hard copy mails, and staff overtime, each of which reduces your operational profits day by day. Your office staff should focus on other important aspects of the work, such as taking care of the patients, not manually dial phone numbers to make collections throughout the day.

   You can streamline your collection procedures by implementing the following -

   • Dedicate a small team to perform collections and provide them with the latest software and technology to keep track of pending collections
   • Pursue customers only when you feel that they are not going to pay up, or when insurance providers decide to stall the process
   • Ensure your workers are good at payment plant monitoring and work along with the patients as per the guidelines of their insurance provider so that their monthly payments are duly processed and recorded
   • Hire a professional agency to help you out with bad debt recovery, account litigation services, secondary placement services, and skip tracing absconding customers

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Medical Billing and Coding - Future Trends

It is more than likely that even with the recent arrival of ICD-10, the medical billing and coding segment of the healthcare industry will continue to thrive. Employment opportunities in this field are expected to grow by more than 15% between 2015 and 2024, a rate much faster than any other occupation. Some of the medical coding trends we can expect to see in the near future include -

• Widespread EHR Adoption: The adoption of information technology in the healthcare sector is on a continuous rise, and most of it has to do with the frustration of using old, antiquated methods for coding and billing. In the future, we can expect healthcare services to become more inter-connected and paperless, resulting in increased interoperability for better speed and accuracy
• Coding Will Evolve: The major challenge with moving to ICD-10 from ICD-9 was that for the first time, reimbursement was front and center for the people involved in medical billing services. In the future, we can expect code comparison with clinical documentation to become much easier, as well as gain the ability to check for consistency between procedure and diagnosis codes
• Increased Job Opportunities: It is anticipated that after the transition to ICD-10, there will be a huge jump in the requirement for trained medical coding and billing professionals. The focus today is on specialized medical billers such as experienced pediatric billing professionals, etc., and in the future, such specialized professionals will help to keep the industry stay up-to-date with the latest changes

Choose Outsource2india for High-quality Medical Billing and Coding Services

At O2I, we offer global healthcare companies a suite of medical billing and coding services that remains unmatched till date. If you want to maximize your revenue, increase collections, steadily improve efficiency, and reduce overall expenses, then our healthcare services are an ideal fit for you.

We have built our acclaimed healthcare revenue cycle management solution on a proven platform, allowing you to increase your cash flow through medical billing and coding services provided by our experienced professionals. Contact us right away and let us take care of your bottom line so you can run your practice the way you want.