The healthcare industry constitutes a vast array of services among which chiropractic care is of high significance. The workplace challenges for chiropractors are of an intense nature that requires dedication to patients. For chiropractors to keep their doors open for patients suffering from various ailments, one major element they must focus on is the process of billing.
As with all other components of the medical services industry, chiropractors too are aware of the critical role that medical billing plays in their daily operations. While chiropractors utilize their expertise in treating patients, it is convenient for them to seek external help by outsourcing chiropractic billing services to manage the revenue side of the business. This would allow them to direct their undivided attention to patient care.
Significance of the Chiropractic Services Billing Process
The procedure for getting paid for the services rendered by chiropractic service providers is what the billing process entails. Although it may sound simple, the intricacies of the process make it far more difficult for chiropractors to manage on their own. Successful medical billing helps ensure that the revenue cycle management remains free from routine bumps in the road. To manage this cycle smoothly, a dedicated staff must be appointed for regular follow-ups with payers, denial management, and reduction in turn-around-times. Keeping staff immersed in such activities makes it difficult for them to manage the other critical duties relating to patient care. This is why most practices opting for chiropractic medical billing companies to manage the accounts part of their business.
Common Errors in Chiropractic Billing
Poor billing practices can cost chiropractors huge losses in the long run. In the process of medical billing and coding, a few common errors have been identified as the chief reasons behind claim denials and poor reimbursements. All of that can be avoided by outsourcing the chiropractic billing services to a reputed firm that can identify and eliminate such errors.
Here’s a look at some of these errors and their reasons:
- Frequently Changing Regulations – The regulatory guidelines are constantly in a flux owing to the changes in the healthcare scenario in the country. Especially in the past few months, the regulations have undergone several changes to cope with the effects of the pandemic on the medical community. Chiropractic services engaged in patient care may get overwhelmed with these changing regulations and are likely to make mistakes in filing claims. The time spent on redressal of faulty claims could have been utilized to file new claims. A substantial amount of time, effort, and manpower must be employed to solve such scenarios. And in a bid to prevent such cases from recurring, regular training of employees regarding the changing regulations becomes a necessity. While this seems like a solution, all it does is make the practice focus more on administrative and back-office operations than the core functions. Chiropractic service providers having the foresight to avoid such mishaps, outsource medical billing services to off-load these burdensome processes away.
- Complex Billing Requirements – Insurance companies are excessively particular about details. Correct billing and coding procedures must be followed in addition to vigilant verification of patient records and insurance policies. These verifications require a team of dedicated staff members to ensure that not a single mistake goes undetected. But more often than not, some detail or the other does get overlooked by inexperienced eyes and it ends up costing financial losses for the chiropractor. Following such a scenario, more filing and paperwork is generated, leading to a doubling of man-hours and efforts to realize the same goals that could have been achieved in half the time. In an attempt to curb this gross mismanagement of manpower, chiropractic billing services should be turned to.
Why Outsource Chiropractic Billing Services?
At the outset, chiropractors might have second thoughts about outsourcing medical billing. But when all the factors are added up, outsourcing medical billing turns out to be the most cost-effective option around for chiropractic service providers.
- For starters, since chiropractic medical billing companies make profits from the revenue they bring in to their clients, they are likely to put in more effort to increase the cash flow. This gives them just the right amount of incentive to prioritize the revenue collection of their clients.
- Secondly, employing staff for billing and coding becomes expensive for small to medium-sized practitioners. Hiring is not sufficient to keep the staff working efficiently as they also need to be trained routinely to make sure they are aware of the changing regulatory requirements. Bearing this in mind, it just becomes the better option to go for chiropractic medical billing companies in the USA that already have trained personnel on board.
- Also, chiropractic billing services have far more resources with them to efficiently handle the growing number of cases that a chiropractor hopes to deal with. From managing electronic billing to electronic data verification services, they are geared to meet with industrial requirements in every way possible.
Services offered by chiropractic medical billing companies
Owing to the competitiveness surrounding the medical billing industry, a growing number of chiropractic billing companies in the USA are offering a wide range of billing services. These include everything from enrollment to AR follow-ups. The following is a comprehensive list of services that can be availed by chiropractors to make the medical billing process less burdensome for them.
- Enrolment of patients into the billing system
- Information collection regarding patient demographics
- Information collection regarding insurance
- Verification services
- Insurance verification
- Authorization of verified documents
- Medical coding services
- HCPCS codes to represent medical services provided
- CPT/ ICD codes to describe the conditions being treated
- Billing and accounts management
- Accounts reconciliation
- Cash posting
- Entry of charges
- Accounts Receivable and Collection Management
- Following up on AR collections
- Collection of insurance claims
- Denial Management
The above-mentioned services can be availed by chiropractors to ensure that there are no interruptions in their core functional areas. As reputed chiropractic medical billing services are capable of handling the finances of the business, it becomes much smoother for the practices to strike a balance between patient care and reimbursements.
Should Outsourcing be opted for During the Covid-19 Pandemic?
The benefits of working with external medical billing companies have never been more relevant than during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is because most businesses are operating with staff shortages, and yet the healthcare needs of patients have not decreased in the least. To keep up with the needs of patients, chiropractors have had to deal with a growing number of cases by themselves, leading to additional demands of the job on them. This situation can be easily rectified by employing an external chiropractic medical billing services provider that’s cut out to do this very job.
Managing complex operations with a workforce that is mandated to work from home poses serious operational challenges. The nature of the organization of the new, virtual workplace might seem like a difficult task for those who aren’t used to this setup. But outsource service providers have experts working remotely for far longer than anyone else in the market. This has created a dependency of medical practitioners on the billing and coding service providers. This is actually a co-dependency as both practices can thrive out of this congregation of resources. While practices can meet their operational objectives, the outsourcing services provider can meet its own goals as well. This win-win situation is enhanced further if we factor in the help that patients get in these dire times.
Benefits of Outsourcing Chiropractic Billing Services
The benefits associated with outsourcing chiropractic billing services are aplenty. Of these, a few primary ones revolving around compliance, denial management, reporting, and others are listed below.
- Improved billing compliance – Medical billing compliance means adhering to the billing regulations laid down for the medical community. The transactions carried out in this industry must be protected from fraudulent means and to this end, regulations and guidelines are designed to root out the truth from the false. At the same time, care providers are protected from remaining unpaid for all their skilled services. Moreover, the information related to medical billing must be handled with confidentiality and this too is ensured by regulatory compliance. A chiropractic medical billing company is up-to-date with the latest amendments to regulations, and have sufficient experience to know how and when non-compliant activities can be detected and thus, prevent them from affecting filings.
- Faster reimbursements – The time a medical practice waits to get paid for any service provided after the submission of the claims indicates their billing efficiency. The longer the wait, the more likely it is that billing operations aren’t running as well as they should. Such an indicator of lost time should not be disregarded by chiropractors and the necessary steps must be initiated. By opting for the services of outsourcing medical billing companies, chiropractic services can expect a reduction in AR days and thus faster reimbursements. The technology and infrastructure used by external chiropractic medical billing service providers cut down on the payment processing time and increase the overall throughput.
- Management of denied claims – There are several factors owing to which claims can get denied and chiropractors who try to manage the billing in-house, find it extremely difficult to realize the desired outcomes. Overlooking minor details can lead to huge repercussions as large amounts can get stuck in denials. An increasing number of claim denials is a sign that the practice is in need of the services of an expert chiropractic billing company to take over the cases. These services can easily manage a large number of cases and efficiently cut down on the denials. This helps chiropractors to get the baggage of denial management off their backs, while at the same time reap the benefits of successful claims coming through.
- Regular and insightful reporting – With the aid of chiropractic medical billing service providers, it’s easy to have a regular analysis of the number of bills being generated daily as well as the actual collection being made at the end of each analysis period. Such an analysis into the accounts of the medical practice facility keeps one informed on how well the business is doing. This also helps chiropractors to retune their operations to improve the overall functioning of their facility.
- Access to highly qualified subject matter experts – As has been made abundantly clear, medical billing and coding is a complex process that needs to be overseen by experts who can validate the claims being made. By collaborating with the expertise provided by the chiropractic medical billing companies, it becomes possible for chiropractors to avail of the subject matter experts in the field to take care of the more critical cases. Depending on the seriousness of the filing, it’s necessary to employ people with different levels of expertise. And this can be readily provided by trusty chiropractic billing companies.
While the challenges on the healthcare system are ever-increasing, the benefits that can be reaped off chiropractic medical billing companies make it an easy ride for chiropractors. These benefits will become a long-term necessity as practices continue to scale their businesses and take on more cases. Managing a huge load of billings and filings soon becomes a stressful job for chiropractors. They are thus better off outsourcing billing-related procedures to professionals who are well-suited to handle this aspect of the operations.
Who We Are and Why We are an Industry Authority?
OutsourceRCM, an expert healthcare solutions company, is proficient in handling a range of services pertaining to revenue cycle management, billing and coding, and denial management. We cater to the chiropractic community with the latest technology, assisting chiropractors to meet their billing requirements for successful reimbursement. Our team of experts enables a plethora of large and small medical practices to carry out their daily operations smoothly and provide better care to the patients while it handles the back-end services of the facilities.