Many physician practices are delegating their financial operations to third parties known as revenue cycle outsourcers. Should you? Here are some key pointers rheumatology practices should use to make a decision:
- Compare the expense of in-house billing—including staff salary and overhead, time spent on billing, third-party fees for claims clearinghouses, and related supplies such as claims forms—with the cost to hire it out.
- Compare the soft costs, such as the time and effort involved in hiring and managing staff versus a loss of oversight, your comfort level and expertise with billing, and your ability to find solid billing staff in your location.
- Compare the effectiveness by considering whether you are receiving reports on a regular basis, the relative age of your accounts receivable, your denial rate for claims, the average time it takes from a patient visit to file a claim plus checks-and-balances reports that reconcile payments received with payment entry, and daily receipts.
Armed with this data, you can benchmark your practice against the revenue cycle firm of your choice. They should be able to provide some performance data on practices like yours. This will allow you to assess the effectiveness of your current billing system as well as the pros and cons of keeping your billing in-house.
If you need additional information or assistance with practice management guidelines or coding and billing, contact Antanya Chung at achung@rheumatology.org or (404) 633-3777, ext. 818.