Having in-house staff that perform specialist tasks can be an incredible asset for any business, but all too often what ends up happening is that you have generalist staff who are being asked to work out how to complete tasks that they were never trained in and do not have the experience to do efficiently.
This is particularly so when it comes to medical billing. In a large hospital you might have a team of people whose core function is to run accounts payable and accounts receivable, who have the time, training and resources to chase up on unpaid bills, arrange payment plans and to follow up on overdue notices.
Jack Of All Trades
In a smaller medical practice, the accounts payable and account receivable is often undertaken by the same person. The person that is also often trying to answer the phones, organize scheduling, take booking, and in this day and age, keep the company website and social media pages updated with lots of smiling happy people. It is simply not possible for one person to manage all of this and hiring another staff member is not going to solve the problem.
This is why it is becoming best practice to start using outsourced specialists. For a medical practice looking at increasing their revenue through decreasing the number of unpaid bills they have, using a company like AccuMedBilling makes sense. In much the same way as there is an increase in online chat and phone support companies that are able to ensure your business has someone available to help customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, outsourcing certain tasks is only going to the business more efficient.
Where Is The Goodwill?
Often there is the idea that billing should be handled in-house. This is particularly true for small medical practices that are just starting up. One of the reasons for this is obviously reduced expenditure on staff, however, another reason is also the fear of poor customer service (like this). Having your lovely receptionist or practice manager call up people once a month to find out when they are going to be paying the outstanding amount that they owe you might seem like the best policy for creating goodwill amongst your patients, but this is unfortunately not the case.
Being able to outsource, particularly your accounts receivable, means that your patients are going to be contacted by someone who is used to dealing with the uncomfortable situations that people who have found themselves with an unexpected medical bill are in. You are going to be able to talk with your billing company and discuss what options you would like to be able to offer. Obviously being paid in full at the time is perfect, however, you may also want them to consider payment plans that will provide a regular income and paying down of the debt.
The external billing company will be increasing goodwill between your practice and your patients every time they handle a situation with professionalism and empathy. Which are two things that people working within the accounts field are generally trained to do. However, if things become difficult, if your patient is unwilling to come to any arrangement, or denies they owe the money, and the situation looks like it will be heading towards litigation, having a third party provides a buffer between your practice and the patient. It is not you directly that is causing the patient to be distressed about the invoice.
Getting Your Practice Set Up
What if you really are only a small practice and want to handle everything inhouse? You can absolutely do this but getting in a professional company to help you ensure that you have the right technology, software and systems in place to make sure that you have the best chance of keeping your accounts running smoothly.
Sometimes all it takes is to get a system in place the makes it easy for your patients to actually pay their bill. At the same time, you also want to make sure that you have systems that allow whoever is going to be running your accounts receivable to see easily who still owes your practice money, how much, and how long they have owed it for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounts_receivable
Being able to create checks and balances, to have procedures that allow for easy follow up, and that mean you can answer patient queries about their balance owed without needing to go through multiple spreadsheets or filing systems will help to increase your revenue.
