The Top 4 Reasons Providers Might Outsource Medical Billing To You

Operating your own medical billing service is an opportunity to both be your own boss and control your own career trajectory. But being an independent contractor also means being a savvy business owner. And a big part of it is knowing your customers.

Many healthcare providers still try to handle medical billing in-house. When they finally abandon such efforts and start looking for an outsourcing partner, they are hoping to find an organization that can take medical billing off their hands. But they also want an organization that can do it efficiently, cost-effectively, and in full compliance with the law.

As an independent contractor, how well do you know your customers? Here are the top four reasons they might outsource medical billing to you:

1. To Cut Costs

Year after year, studies show that healthcare CFOs are trying to cut costs everywhere they can. A 2020 report from Kaufman Hall revealed that the majority of surveyed CFOs were feeling the pinch of financial constraints. They received the same response from 70% of the survey respondents in 2019 and 66% in 2018.

How does outsourcing help? First, it eliminates the added expenses of hiring and maintaining an in-house staff. Second, it increases efficiency by handing over specialized work to independent contractors or medical billing firms who do nothing but billing.

2. To Reduce Overhead Costs

In addition to the general cost of handling medical billing in-house, CFOs need to look at the cost of overhead. Overhead is tied up in equipment, office space, software, and everything else needed to run an in-house and billing department.

By definition, overhead does not make an organization money. Rather, it is a drain on financial resources. You have your own overhead as a medical billing independent contractor. The chances are good that your overhead is substantially less than what your clients face keeping medical billing in-house.

3. To Increase Reimbursements

The third reason your clients may outsource medical billing to you is a desire to increase reimbursements. They might be looking at a case where their in-house staff does more than just handle billing. They have other responsibilities that need their attention.

As you know, maximizing reimbursements requires accuracy. It requires giving attention to every little detail. You can do that because medical billing is the only thing you need to worry about. That may not be the case with some of your clients.

4. Data at-a-Glance

Finally, your clients may be looking for a medical billing service provider capable of producing easy-to-read reports in a centralized dashboard that gives CFOs all the information they need at a glance. Your clients may not have that capability built into their software while investing in new billing software is out of the question.

Does your software have such capabilities? If not, it is something to think about next time you upgrade. In medical billing, data is everything. CFOs want access to the details at all times.

Give Them What They Want

Whether you are an independent contractor or own and operate a medical billing company, it is in your best interests to know your customers as well as you can. The more you know them, the more you can give them what they want. And giving them what they want is the key to your long-term success.

There are reasons healthcare providers outsource medical billing. Above and beyond what you read in this post medical billing is a complex undertaking not for the faint of heart. You are in the business because you have what it takes.

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