Managing the day-to-day operations of your practice and maintaining positive cash flow can be a daunting task. This is especially true when revenue does not arrive on a timeline that allows you to pay bills and expenses promptly. When that happens, it can lead to low bank balances, unpaid bills, radical cost cutting and strained credit. It can even threaten profitability.

The ability to address this phenomenon, known as “revenue cycle management,” is an essential ingredient of every successful practice, and one way to do so is to outsource medical billing to a qualified expert.

“Outsourcing your billing often makes sense because it puts your financial well being in the hands of experts,” said Manik Chawla, CEO of Practolytics, a firm that has offered billing services for more than 20 years. “These experts are going to bring in more money, more quickly because they understand how the system works and how to optimize your operation.”

How Buying Can Trump Building

Hiring experts can also  upgrade technology and provide additional capacity in ways that are very difficult to achieve with in-house hiring. More importantly, they can do it almost instantly.

Creating a billing department, by contrast, is fraught with problems. It requires hiring expert personnel, buying into technology and devoting significant resources to achieve the basic functions of billing and coding. When that department makes mistakes, it can have a direct impact on your bottom line, slowing payments, increasing denials, and even triggering payer audits. It can also create personnel-related dependencies in which staff turnover can impact revenue.

Outsourcing eliminates these problems by moving billing to an expert company that does it at scale. For example, Practolytics, a Nitra partner, serves almost 200 practices across 31 states and collects more than $500 million for its clients annually. A company like this has more resources than an in-house department and can use them to lower risk, expedite payment and even increase profitability.

“We have been doing this for two decades and we have learned a great deal along the way,” Chawla said. “When we take on clients, we put that experience to work and the results speak for themselves. Money comes in more quickly and many of our clients see an overall revenue increase as well.”

Advantages of Outsourcing Medical Billing

Experts point to several advantages to an outsourced billing solution:

• Improved Turnaround Time. When you outsource your medical billing to an expert, they are often more proficient in dealing systematically with a large volume of records. With a larger staff, better resources, and advanced technology, claims can be processed much more efficiently. This maximizes reimbursements and ensures a smoother revenue cycle.
• Faster Claim Submissions and Audits. When you outsource medical billing, claims processing is faster and far easier than in-house processing. Because the process is automated and audited, denials are minimized. The claims are reviewed to ensure compliance with payer data, and you end up collecting accounts receivables much more quickly. Many practices see an increase in revenue.
• Adherence to HIPAA Protocols. Data security and patient privacy are important factors in the process of medical billing. A qualified billing expert ensures that HIPAA protocols and privacy regulations are followed and that patient data is safe. They also stay current on process modifications, minimizing risk.
• More Time for Patients. Outsourcing medical billing services to an expert can reduce administrative headaches, allowing you and your staff to focus on patients more effectively. Relieving your staff from the paperwork associated with billing enables them to focus more directly on the patient experience.

In many cases, outsourcing can improve revenue cycle management, increase efficiency, reduce costs and enhance compliance. For healthcare providers looking to streamline operations and improve profitability, outsourced medical billing may well be worth a look.

To see how your practice can save money and streamline operations, check out Nitra’s Partner Network. Nitra cardholders interested in Practolytics can get $12,000 in onboarding costs waived and 5% cash back ongoing.

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