In today’s changing health care industry, hospitals and physicians are constantly looking for ways to reduce their costs and increase profits. With hospital administrative costs now exceeding 25 percent of their expenses, healthcare providers are searching for innovative ways to reduce these costs even further.
One of the best ways providers can reduce costs and boost efficiencies is by outsourcing their billing services. Outsourcing billing can increase revenue and reduce costs. Billing is an extremely complex component of any medical practice. Employees must be trained in coding and billing in order to reduce errors. Instead of training employees to complete the billing in-
house, many providers are opting to outsource this practice to a vendor who is specifically trained in coding and billing.
Outsourcing billing is typically a more efficient process for a vendor as opposed to having a specialist in house. Employees can focus on their specific job without worrying about billing processes and procedures.
Hospitals are also facing new challenges as a result of increased patient financial responsibility. With the rise in high-deductible health plans, patients are spending more on out-of- pocket expenses. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, high out-of- pocket costs from insured patients results in about 55 percent of patient responsibility resulting in debt for hospitals. Self- pay patients also cause additional debt for hospitals as a result of inefficient collection processes. Hospitals are now spending more time collecting self-pay balances than settling claims with insurance companies.
According to Black Book, 94 percent of hospital CFOs believe that an updated financial system would increase their revenue and improve the finances for their institutions. However, 48 percent of CFOs report that a limited budget would be the main factor in failing to implement a new system.
Have you been exploring outsourcing billing in your practice? A/R Management is one of the most manual and time consuming parts of Revenue Cycle Management. Billers spend the majority of their time managing denials. Payers are making denials difficult to resolve due to
call restrictions, limited data availability, and outdated systems with limited integration capabilities. Using our proprietary STREAM technology, TPA Stream for Revenue Cycle Management is able to conduct manual claims analysis automatically on behalf of your billing team. Schedule an online demonstration today!