Does your billing company cost your practice more than you realize?
If you’re considering contracting with a billing company for your medical practice or questioning the effectiveness of your current vendor, it’s crucial to take a closer look at the potential issues discussed in this article. While focusing on factors like customer support, communications, and compliance is important, assessing how these aspects can impact claim resolution timelines, cash flow, and overall financial strain is equally essential. Regularly monitoring the performance of a billing service can help ensure a beneficial and cost-effective partnership for your medical practice.
The cost of collaboration
Collaborating with a medical billing company can bring numerous advantages to a busy practice. However, certain situations may unexpectedly result in additional costs, placing a greater financial burden on your practice than anticipated. Here are some areas TRIARQ Health’s team frequently identifies and helps practice to rectify.
Contract Creep
One way a billing service can increase your practice’s financial burden is through “contract creep.” Phil Dodds, Executive Vice President of Practice Services and Product for TRIARQ Health, explains, “We often hear from practices that their billing vendors slowly add new charges for recommended or required services under the pretense of delivering better results. These additional charges accumulate over time, driving up the overall cost for the medical practice.”
Inaccuracy
TRIARQ Health also assists specialty practices in uncovering the inefficiency and inaccuracy of legacy billing vendors, significantly draining a practice’s monthly cash flow. Julie Lundberg, Vice President of Product Performance for TRIARQ Health, elaborates, “We encounter practices that are forced to allocate additional resources to handle follow-up work on claims submitted incorrectly by their billing company. If a practice uses multiple vendors for prior authorization, coding, and revenue cycle management, the situation worsens as more hands in the process don’t always yield the best results.”
Lack of Transparency
Moreover, TRIARQ Health has witnessed the detrimental effects of a medical billing company failing to provide transparent reporting and actionable insights on a monthly basis. Without visibility into the data underlying their billing and financial performance, practices cannot identify potential revenue leaks or inefficiencies, resulting in financial setbacks. “Practices need to realize that the data within their EMR and billing and collections systems hold the key to their future success,” emphasizes Mike Sappington, CEO of TRIARQ Health. “Rather than merely serving as a historical record of past services, this data can reveal ways in which practices can proactively improve their operations and establish financially viable clinical care pathways for their patients.”
Sabrina Dobbins, EVP of Client Success and Revenue Cycle Delivery at TRIARQ Health, emphasizes the importance of medical practices having a partner rather than just a billing vendor. She states, “Some billing services enter into contracts that are not truly aligned with the success of the practice. For instance, a billing service that charges a flat fee has no incentive to maximize collections. Similarly, billing services that charge hourly rates may not be driven to optimize performance.”
Don’t Settle
Don’t settle for the status quo when it comes to your practice’s billing procedures. Ongoing performance monitoring can ensure that your partnership with a billing company is both advantageous and cost-effective. Reach out to a TRIARQ Health consultant today for a conversation that can demonstrate how you can achieve this goal.