7 Reasons Why Outsourcing DME Billing is Good for your Practice

DME billing can be a daunting task given the changes in regulations by payers as well as federal agencies. There are various DME billing challenges that providers have to face in order to get timely payments. From following the billing and coding procedures as per the prescribed guidelines to implementing the comprehensive process of authorisation and eligibility verification, a lot needs to be handled to get claims paid on time.

Error-free billing also requires a good understanding of Medicare, Medicaid and Commercial Plan rules. Coding and documentation pre-requisites also need to be followed which makes DME billing more complex. Considering the difficulties, many providers prefer to outsource billing to a service provider. If you also plan on hiring a billing company for this service, then here are seven ways in which you can benefit from outsourcing:

1. Your practice will be getting access to the expertise and experience of the billing staff. Reputed billing companies have a team of well-trained billers and codes who are expert at handling DME billing challenges.
2. Outsourcing will help your practice increase revenue. You will also be saving money in terms of infrastructure, salaries, employee benefits, technology and so on. There will be no need to spend on hiring, training and retaining staff. With reduced overhead costs, error-free claims submission and timely reimbursements, your practice will be able to increase revenue to a great extent.
3. Since a dedicated team will be handling the billing procedure, you will get sufficient time to focus on patient care. Rather than monitoring an in-house billing team, you can direct the time to more core competencies such as quality care of your patients.
4. Adherence to ICD-10 becomes easier if DME billing is being handled by professional coders. Changes in ICD-10 codes are having a significant impact on the payment outcome of practices. Instead of hiring expert coders, practices are choosing to outsource coding and billing to a third party. Reputed service providers work with a team of coders who are well-versed with the sweeping regulations.
5. Follow-ups in DME billing procedure can be very time consuming. But if you outsource, everything from follow-up with patient appointments to insurance verification, accurate A/R collections and confirmation of rental DME will be handled by their team.
6. Certified billing companies comply with the latest healthcare laws such as HIPAA and other healthcare reforms so you don’t have to worry about compliance issues.
7. If you have outsourced DME billing to a reliable third party, they will take care of all stringent documentation requirements, ensuring that the appropriate charges are being assigned to the codes provided by the coders.