Today, the healthcare industry is the most rapidly developing landscape in the modern marketplace. Most importantly, due to the advent of technology radiology practices experienced a sudden boost in growth. There was a time when there were less stringent regulations and fewer tasks for radiology practices and in-house radiology medical billing services was a clever advantage. In fact, in-house radiology billing practices were preferable in the 1980s. Nowadays, the medical billing and coding industry has evolved due to the implementation of new coding guidelines. It has become extremely challenging for radiology practitioners to manage their medical practice along with in-house billing practices.
Medical billing and coding guidelines have evolved from a relatively simple back-office administrative duty to a sophisticated matrix. Therefore, most of the practitioners outsource radiology billing services to acquire the assistance of qualified and certified specialists for medical billing services who dedicate their time and resources to keep pace with the complicated revolutions in the radiology billing cycle. In this article, I have enlisted the pros and cons of both the options (in-house and outsourced) billing services. So you can analyze what is the best option for your business practices.
Pros of In-House Radiology Medical Billing Services
- Control of billing operations:
Most of the radiology practitioners prefer to take full control of their radiology billing services. They prefer to access medical billing staff by themselves and handle their medical account receivable collections in their own office premises. Therefore, if you have similar preferences than in-house radiology billing services is the best suitable option for your business.
- Local service and representation:
Traditional radiology practices desire to have an in-house billing department so practitioners and patients can visit their office if they would ever need to ask any query about medical bills.
- Loyalty:
Radiologists often expect their employees must have the attributes of loyalty and trust. With in-house billing practices, they can assess their employees by closely looking into their performance metrics. For such practitioners, it is very difficult to build relationships with third-party business partners.
Cons Of In-House Radiology Medical Billing Services
- Cost and investment:
In-house medical coding and billing practices bind practitioners to allocate their budget for fixed and variable costs including; salaries and wages, employee benefits, payroll taxes, office space, computer systems, medical billing software, maintenance, phone class, administrative expenses, and many other detail line items. This upward cost pressure comes in the form of annual compensation increases, computer system replacement, increases in software access and maintenance fees, and virtually compile every expense time on your financial statement.
- Liability exposure:
Smaller operations that handle substantial amounts of money are at a much higher risk of financial legislation or even embezzlement due to overload of responsibilities. It can also give rise to financial risks due to the lack of systematic checks and balances.
- Operational and business continuity:
Absence or turnover of any employee of the radiology billing department can cost a huge penalty to your radiology business practice. Failing to stay compliant with the current radiology billing breeds many irregularities in cash flow and often result in a permanent loss of revenue.
The loss of key resources for radiology billing services due to illness, death or termination poses significant risks including operational continuity and permanent loss of revenue during the period of recruitment of new employee, absence or
training of new personnel.
Pros Of Outsourced Radiology Medical Billing Services
- Revenue enhancement:
A reliable medical billing company can often recover significant additional revenue. Most of the medical billing companies have enhanced processes and safeguards to validate receipt of interpretation reports and ensure compliance with the current guidelines of medical codes, clean claim filing, effective and timely denial management, holding payers, accountable to their contracts, quality reporting and follow-up.
- Cost savings:
It is the ultimate goal of every business to save a significant amount of money and time while boosting their business growth with thrifty solutions. Outsource medical billing companies are advantaged by having economies of scale in each of the primary areas of competency and the ability to allocate less overhead fixed costs to your patient volume.
- Reduced responsibility:
Reliable medical billing companies contribute to your responsibilities with trust-worthy medical billing companies. No longer will you have to directly be involved in hiring, training and managing employees or continuously educate yourself with the ever-changing medical coding guidelines.
- Consistency:
You no longer have to accept cash flow variances related to an employee taking a medical leave, being on vacation, or employee turnarounds. So there will be the consistency in radiology medical billing services that will also result in continuity of cash flow. It also ensures that there should be consistent cash flow and your account receivable collections are also monitored in a timely manner.
- Data mining:
Mostly professional medical billing companies have cutting-edge technology that can utilize big data to help you make better business decisions. Hence, they engage their clients with analytical reports that have real-time data to deliver transparent billing services.
Cons of Outsourced Radiology Medical Billing Services
- Less control:
Being a business owner, if you require that every resource that is associated with radiology billing cycle is easily accessible then outsourcing is not your field of business.
- Variable and/or hidden costs:
We recommend you to do complete research on the internet before outsourcing radiology billing services. Go through the reviews and feedback of several medical billing companies in order to estimate their credibility. As some of the medical billing companies cost you hidden charges, they can also embrace abusive medical bills that contain extra charges and thrust upon healthcare costs burden over your patients. After complete research and consultation from the internet, you can simply find the best medical billing company that can help you get out of the revenue collection problems with knowledge-base decisions.
- Offshore processes:
Outsourcing radiology medical billing services can also introduce some risks if you don’t hire a trustworthy medical billing company. Make sure that you partner with a medical billing company that complies with the federal laws, regulations and guidelines of your country.
Conclusion:
Deciding whether or not outsource radiology medical billing services is still a difficult puzzle to solve for several practitioners. However, due to the rapid changes in the healthcare regulations and new trends, it has also become essential to partner with the trust-worthy medical billing companies to stay abreast of all the revolutions in the healthcare industry.
Are you looking for a reliable medical billing company that can influence your radiology billing services in order to smooth cash flow transitions? Then contact us! To have consistent control over your revenue generation.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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