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We
see so many ads for Medical Billing. Earn lots of money! Work
from home! No experience needed! The ads say anyone can make
lots of money doing medical billing, but is it really true?
Medical insurance billing has become much more complicated
in recent years. If a doctor is to be paid well for his services,
the insurance billing is a very large part of his practice.
There is a lot more to medical billing than just sending a
claim in to an insurance company and sitting back to wait
for the payment. Each company has its own rules and in order
to get paid, we must know them and follow them.
How
do you learn these rules and where do you turn for medical
billing information? Because it has become so complicated,
it has become increasingly difficult to find employees who
can handle this time consuming job. A doctor’s office
is a busy place and his employee may not have half an hour
to wait on hold while checking on a claim, for a customer
service representative to tell her that the claim is “not
on file”.
Since their income, and ultimately the success
of their office relies so heavily on the billing being done
effectively, Doctors have found it increasingly cost-effective
to outsource their medical billing to professionals who can
concentrate solely on his billing. If the billing service
is being paid on the basis of their results, the doctor is
more likely to maximize his receivables. The medical billing
service is going to concentrate their efforts on getting every
claim paid when the service is
paid according to their results while a billing
person in the office is more likely on a busy day to say “Forget
it. This claim isn’t worth another phone call!!”
Unfortunately in most offices this claim will be written off
and the doctor will never know. There is so much involved
with billing that most people, including the doctors, don’t
even realize.
The claims have to be submitted properly, and timely, on the
correct forms.If claims are being submitted electronically,
reports need to be read and acted upon. When payments are
received, they need to be analyzed to make sure they were
processed correctly, and then posted. If there is a patient
responsibility after payment is made, then a patient statement
needs to be sent. If the claim is denied, or not paid properly,
it needs to be handled, and handled quickly. If the denial
or incorrect payment is not acted upon right away, you may
not be able to correct it. |
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