Psychiatry Medical Billing
One of the most critical services to increase in volume in the past couple of years is psychiatry medical services. Due to the pandemic, the rise in mental health awareness, and the recent launch of 988, psychiatry services have seen an overall rise in the number of patients. What was once a small practice of a few dozen patients may quickly be growing into a service that helps hundreds of patients.
Many practitioners have experienced an increase in time spent on billing for these new clients. In fact, you may be considering hiring staff for psychiatry medical billing purposes, but which is right for you?
In-house vs Outsourced Psychiatry Medical Billing
Many practices rely on in-house services for their billing. There are some main benefits to this approach, mainly three things:
- Controlling all procedures.
- You can easily implement new procedures to make your practice better.
- Ease of access to billing staff.
In-house billing can be great for small businesses that have well-defined procedures and can keep up with the latest changes and insurance policies. On the other hand, in-house billing does have some shortcomings such as:
- Higher costs for hiring, training, and retaining employees.
- Limited staffing at times.
- More susceptible to fraud with a lack of oversight.
Outsourced psychiatry medical billing does provide a ton of benefits for those practices that are looking to grow. For instance, you can expect benefits like:
- It is generally less expensive to outsource billing. Service providers charge a flat fee or percentage.
- Enhanced data metrics. Providers often have multiple tools to help view your data.
- Can handle high volume work at a consistent rate.
Downsides to outsourced psychiatry medical billing are:
- Costs are not fixed. As you intake more patients, you will pay more. However, you will still be making more money.
- You don’t have as much control over the procedures.
- There can be hidden terms or fines. This is highly dependent on the provider of the billing service.
Outsourcing billing services can be a viable option for practices looking to expand and grow. If you are considering outsourcing, here are some reasons you MUST use psychiatry medical billing.
Additional Reading: How to Get Most Out of Your Patient’s Bills?
5 Reasons for Outsourcing Your Psychiatry Medical Billing
Faster & Accurate Coding
If you ever worked in some form of healthcare, you know that coding is a major component when it comes to billing. You also know that coding can be complex and change depending on state and federal laws. Outsourced medical billing has an intimate knowledge of medical billing for specific areas of medicine. You will work with a billing specialist/team that is constantly updating their standards to be compliant with the law. Not to mention, these specialists work solely on billing. This means they often have templates and procedures to speed up the billing process.
Decreased Costs
When it comes to in-house billing services you have to pay for employees:
- Salary
- Benefits (Health insurance, PTO, etc.)
- Training period
- And other costs
This is a large upfront cost that you will incur multiple times throughout the life of your practice. Whereas outsourced medical billing can stay consistent over time. Not only is this process generally cheaper, but it also is faster to implement and run than hiring a new employee. You will not have to haggle about keeping employees. Instead, you sign a contract and start.
Prior Authorization & Benefits Verification
One of the common problems that psychiatry practices face is that they must get prior authorization before receiving care. This can be a challenging task for small practitioners to navigate. Fortunately, outsourced billing services are highly versed in this matter and can make this task easy for you.
Correct Policy Adjustments
Healthcare and insurance policies can change often. It can be difficult for small practices to keep up-to-date with these changes. In turn, customers can be charged more for their psychiatry treatment if insurance companies’ policies are not met. Furthermore, this can damage the credibility of your practice and the mental well-being of your patients.
Documenting Errors
Unchecked errors can result in a delay in payment or even a reduction in care. Some insurances, states, or other factors require detailed documentation. This documentation is crucial for insurance to cover psychiatric treatment. Outsourced psychiatry medical billing services can help you implement policies and procedures to catch errors or negate them almost entirely. Outsourcing firms also have rigorous standards and procedures to catch potential errors.
Additional Reading: 8 Ways to Efficiently Collect Patient Balances
Cost of Outsourcing Psychiatry Medical Billing
Psychiatry medical billing is a lot like other medical billing services in that they can charge a fleet fee or percentage. On average, you will find companies charge in three ways:
- Percentage: A company will charge around 4%-10% of the revenue they helped you earn.
- Fixed Rate: A billing service will charge per claim submitted, ranging from $1-$5.
- Total Claim Submitted: Some companies will determine the price based on the total number of claims submitted.
Ready for Psychiatry Medical Billing?
Are you ready for psychiatry medical billing for your practice? Do you need someone to help you choose the right provider? Don’t worry, we can help! 360Connect pairs high-quality suppliers and buyers together every day. We will help you receive up to five 100% free quotes. Just fill out our 1–2-minute form and we’ll contact you. It’s that simple!
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