Medical billing is a key part of your practice’s survival, like it or not. While you focus on patient care, the need exists to ensure that patients are not only paying their bills, but also that they are being billed correctly. Problems can arise, however, when you don’t have the resources available to keep up with your practice’s medical billing. While it’s true that managing your own patient invoicing provides greater control over the process, it can come with a number of difficulties, and in the end, you may consider outsourcing – but is that what’s best for your practice and its patients?.
The Pros of Outsourcing
Even the most experienced medical billing professionals working within the context of a practice face challenges. Handling patient care and concerns, the hustle and bustle of a medical practice, and the need to get everything done quickly may lead to inconsistent billing practices and mistakes. When you outsource medical billing, you may be able to receive a more consistent experience as your outsourcing partner will be focused solely on managing your practice’s billing and nothing else. This removes the distractions that an in-house team might face, allowing you to achieve not only a higher level of accuracy, but also a higher level of consistency.
The Cons of Outsourcing
The downside to outsourcing, however, is that it can mean more money out of your pocket, regardless of the size of your practice. In addition to the recurring charges for billing and management services, you’re likely going to need to give up control as well over the majority of your billing, and this can lead to headaches in the event that there has been some miscommunication between your practice and the outsourced agency. To add to the costs, some outsourced agencies will charge additional or hidden fees to handle billing for specialty practice areas.
Is There a Better Way?
An alternative to outsourcing does exist, and it comes in the form of cloud-based practice management and billing software. Software that is hosted in the cloud allows you and your employees to have secure access to billing documents and records from any standard web browser, and in most cases, such software solutions display information in an adaptable way so that you can have access using mobile devices as well. Using cloud-based software, you retain control over your practice’s billing, and the time you save using streamlined, dedicated software can provide for a greater level of consistency and accuracy. Also, you won’t need to install, maintain, or update anything because your software is hosted in the cloud, thereby lowering costs.
Contact PracticeSuite to Learn More About Billing Solutions
PracticeSuite is a provider of cloud-based practice management and billing software solutions that can help your practice run more efficiently while lowering costs and retaining control over your billing practices. In addition, PracticeSuite offers solutions for a number of different specialties, including mental health, clinical psychology, nursing homes, and radiology. To get a demo of PracticeSuite’s cloud-based software, contact PraticeSuite by visiting www.practicesuite.com today.
