Medical billing is a critical service that supports healthcare providers by submitting claims and collecting payments from insurance companies and patients. Medical billing specialists need to be experts to guarantee that the bills are in full and in a speedy manner. It is quite common for over 20% of a practice's collectable revenue to remain unclaimed because of improper coding and ineffective collection tactics.
As physicians are taking into consideration the use of medical billing services to stop the hemorrhaging of cash from their practices, they are faced with a broad range of options. On the diminutive end of the spectrum are home-based medical billers. On the opposite end of the spectrum are companies that employ hundreds of medical billers and have thousands of clients.
Medical billing is a highly complex area and it requires experience-based knowledge and expertise to contend with insurance companies. When it comes to cardio billing, the situation gets even more complex. Such complexity can be handled only by a company that is staffed with well trained cardiac billing professionals. The medical billing specialist must be familiar with the specific codes and rules that make up the world of cardiology billing.
With cardiologists facing ever increasing costs they must insure that money is not being left on the table because they have a billing company that is not a cardiac billing expert. Cardiologists must also be aware that that many billing companies that claim cardio billing expertise actually outsource their cardiovascular billing work to at home billers. Situations like this are fraught with risk since the remote workers are not working in a controlled and monitored environment.
A key battle ground in the struggle to collect all of the money due a cardiologist is appealing denied claims and answering extremely specific and technical questions about procedures and diagnoses. Success In this arena requires significant experience, the kind that is only gained from serving many cardiologists for many years.
Good cardio billing requires the ability to track underpayments. This is more complicated than typical medical billing because of the rules around multiple-procedures. This complication often exceeds the capabilities of the billing software used by generalist billing companies. This is a critical failing since proper pursuit of underpayments can increase a cardiologist's collections by 7 to 10 percent.
These billing complications extend to the patient collections arena as well. The patient collection process for specialists like cardiologists is more complicated because of the large patient balances often owed, the complexity of the procedures/EOBs that must be explained to patients that do not understand their bills and the older population cardiologists typically serve. A medical billing service with expertise in billing for cardiology knows how to deal with these situations. Billing services without such experience will increase the risk of both lower patient collections and upset patients confused about their bill.
The bottom-line: It is not worth the risk for a cardiologist to use a billing company that is not as focused as he or she is on cardiology. Just as a patient should not go to a family doctor for complex cardiovascular diagnostics, a cardiologist should not go to a generalist billing company for medical billing.
Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II
As physicians are taking into consideration the use of medical billing services to stop the hemorrhaging of cash from their practices, they are faced with a broad range of options. On the diminutive end of the spectrum are home-based medical billers. On the opposite end of the spectrum are companies that employ hundreds of medical billers and have thousands of clients.
Medical billing is a highly complex area and it requires experience-based knowledge and expertise to contend with insurance companies. When it comes to cardio billing, the situation gets even more complex. Such complexity can be handled only by a company that is staffed with well trained cardiac billing professionals. The medical billing specialist must be familiar with the specific codes and rules that make up the world of cardiology billing.
With cardiologists facing ever increasing costs they must insure that money is not being left on the table because they have a billing company that is not a cardiac billing expert. Cardiologists must also be aware that that many billing companies that claim cardio billing expertise actually outsource their cardiovascular billing work to at home billers. Situations like this are fraught with risk since the remote workers are not working in a controlled and monitored environment.
A key battle ground in the struggle to collect all of the money due a cardiologist is appealing denied claims and answering extremely specific and technical questions about procedures and diagnoses. Success In this arena requires significant experience, the kind that is only gained from serving many cardiologists for many years.
Good cardio billing requires the ability to track underpayments. This is more complicated than typical medical billing because of the rules around multiple-procedures. This complication often exceeds the capabilities of the billing software used by generalist billing companies. This is a critical failing since proper pursuit of underpayments can increase a cardiologist's collections by 7 to 10 percent.
These billing complications extend to the patient collections arena as well. The patient collection process for specialists like cardiologists is more complicated because of the large patient balances often owed, the complexity of the procedures/EOBs that must be explained to patients that do not understand their bills and the older population cardiologists typically serve. A medical billing service with expertise in billing for cardiology knows how to deal with these situations. Billing services without such experience will increase the risk of both lower patient collections and upset patients confused about their bill.
The bottom-line: It is not worth the risk for a cardiologist to use a billing company that is not as focused as he or she is on cardiology. Just as a patient should not go to a family doctor for complex cardiovascular diagnostics, a cardiologist should not go to a generalist billing company for medical billing.
Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II
About the Author:
Carl Mays II works with, Cardiology Billing Partners is a specialized medical billing service that focuses 100% on cardiovascular billing. Do not select a medical billing service until you have spoken to Cardiology Billing Partners and learned about the benefits of specialized medical billing services.
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