Do you need an HME billing partner?
Engaging an external billing partner can sometimes appear to be an act of extravagance, especially if a business already has the means to build and maintain an internal billing desk. However, a closer inspection may prove otherwise. In fact, more often than not, hiring a billing partner stems out of necessity than being a mere luxury. Continued profitability, sustainability and economy of operational expenses – all of these hinge on such a choice. And when it comes to choosing an HME billing partner, the situation is not much different. Let me explain.
Like most other areas of medical billing, HME billing comes with its fair share of difficulties and complexities. It needs specialized attention and expert handling. The process demands a fairly high level of accuracy, knowledge of the latest payor norms and regulations, usage of the right codes and adept handling of denials. These are the kinds of challenges that only highly trained and skilled medical billing professionals are able to manage. However, given the steep rise in employee pays and an overall shortage of skilled labor in the market, finding such personnel can prove to be either too expensive or too difficult, or both. Under such circumstances, it is easy to see how engaging an external HME billing partner can add such tremendous value. Let’s take a closer look.
Picking the right partner
Strategic outsourcing of challenging and resource-intensive billing tasks to specialized, third-party billing service providers can help cut operational expenses, improve the collection rate and get the entire revenue cycle better streamlined. This is chiefly because such billing agencies, by dint of their offshore location, are able to provide excellent billing support at remarkably low rates. However, one can never be too careful while choosing such a partner.
Medical billing companies are not hard to find these days. However, they are not of equal standard and the quality of services can be extremely uneven. So if you are an HME provider and are considering offloading your billing responsibilities to a partner, start by finding a billing agency with at least a few years’ experience in the area. It is better to steer clear of newbies, no matter how attractive their offers may seem.
It is also a good idea to choose a billing partner who is proficient with the HME billing system that your practice actually uses (such as Brightree, Kareo, OPIE, Fastrack, CPR+ HME and any of the other, lesser known ones). Prior knowledge and experience with your billing system ensures a quick and seamless transition when you finally decide to migrate your in-house billings to an external agency.