When looking to hire a billing company for your medical office there are many factors to consider. Things like "What is the cost?" "What services will they provide?" "Do they have a thorough knowledge of insurance companies?" These are just a few of the questions that you may have. Below is a list of reasons why a small medical billing company (such as O'Neill Medical Billing) can be beneficial for your practice.
Invoiced on a percentage of revenue - Medical billing companies charge a percentage based on the revenue they collect. This ensures that we work hard to collect for the practice. In short, if the practice isn't making money then neither is the billing service.
No employee overhead - Having an outside billing service is one less employee in the office which will translate to less overhead for the practice. Think office space, worker comp insurance, medical benefits, no added holiday and vacation pay.
Ease of Use - You don't have to worry about learning the ins and outs of billing insurances and can spend more time with patient care.
Single point of contact - Utilizing an outside company allows your biller to stay focused on billing and not get pulled away in a typical office setting.
Quicker claim turnaround - Reviewing claims and codes. This leads to faster claims processing with fewer rejections which result in less outstanding AR
The above are benefits you should receive from any reputable billing service. Below I have outlined the services O'Neill Medical Billing provides and how we will go above and beyond for you.
Continued education - We take the time to keep up to date with the ever-changing medical billing rules. Listening to insurance webinars and doing research to find the best billable codes. Attending Medicare seminars on updating billing procedures. We then pass this information to our providers and clinical staff so everyone stays up to date.
Review office notes - Sometimes there are multiple line items on a visit. We review the charges to ensure all diagnosis codes are matched to the correct line item as well as make sure the correct modifiers are used to get maximum reimbursement on all line items. If there are questions we will read the visit notes for clarification. If still unsure we contact the servicing provider for better understanding.
Face to Face Service - We don't disappear once we have been hired. We like to have face-to-face interactions with office staff. This promotes communication between ourselves and the office. We help front office staff to understand how to read, the sometimes confusing, insurance cards. Because the front office is the first point of contact with a patient, understanding how to enter the insurance into the chart is a vital role for billing. We prefer to keep an open line of communication and always end a visit with "Please call us if you have any questions"
No automated phones - At O'Neill Medical Billing we answer our phones. We have dedicated phone lines with no answering service or automated system. If we are unable to answer a call it will go to our voicemail which is checked regularly.
Update PECOS - Keeping your PECOS information up to date is important to continue to receive payments from Medicare. Many billing services charge for this service, sometimes hundreds of dollars. This is included in the services that O'Neill Medical Billing provides.
Check Eligibility - While checking eligibility prior to a patient's appointment is the most efficient way to ensure quick payment, we realize sometimes this gets overlooked. When we see a denied claim due to eligibility we do everything in our means to find the correct insurance before we look back to the office for support.
Balance Bill - Balance billing patients after the claims have been processed is a huge source of revenue. We print statements in house then review each one before mailing it out. We have found that taking this extra step ensures more accurate bills to patients and speeds up collecting money as well as reduces phone calls with questions to the office staff and biller.
Payment Plans - We help set up payment plans with patients who are unable to pay their entire balance at once. Once patients understand that we will work with them to pay their bill they are more likely to make that payment. We like to think that some money every month is better than no money at all.
These are some of the many benefits a small billing company like O'Neill Medical Billing provides. If you would like more information please contact us.
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