In considering outsourcing, its important to think with a long-term vision in mind. The single biggest reason why Physicians eventually decide to outsource the billing functions is difficulty in managing the human resource cycle. Human resource management problems arise from employee turnover and practice growth.
Employee TurnoverMany medical practices go through high turnover periods, while others find loyal people who dedicate many years to working for the same Physician. The human resource management cycle can be very difficult for a Physician to maintain, since once the Biller leaves, the Physician is left with no other option and is usually forced to hire someone who has very little experience. Ask yourself this question, when would you be the most worried; when your receptionist quits or when your biller leaves? Do you really have the time to find someone who is experienced and reliable and can do the right job with the amount of attention your billing deserves?
Organic Growth
Growth is a normal part of any business. As a practice grows, revenues grow and ultimately, the workload grows. It becomes important to hire new people to meet the new workload demands. If a Physician has kept his/her billing in-house and, when it comes time to hire another biller, the Physician is increasing his/her fixed cost substantially, and all at one time. Not only is finding the right person for the job difficult, but hiring an extra person can be a heavy cost-burden.
With a billing service, the human resource management problems are eliminated on the part of the Physician. HealthQuist goes through periods of turnover, but we are able to absorb that attrition because we have a number of employees within our organization. When we work with a client, we work as a group; i.e. we do not give one employee all of one client’s billing. In this way, we can easily manage the normal attrition that occurs in companies and medical practices today. In addition, as you grow your practice, your cost/revenue percent remains the same without any large increases.
Cost Analysis Section
Cost-effective Solution
When you outsource, you save money and resources in many areas such as:
- Medical Record Coder (in-patient and out-patient)
- Computer hardware
- Maintenance fees / support contracts
- Software and upgrade costs
- Delay in claim research
- Delay in claim resubmission
- Time spent on phone with insurance companies
- Training seminars / education
- Human resource recruiting
- Holiday, vacation and sick pay
- Wages, taxes and benefits
- Office space dedicated to billing functions
When you outsource to a billing service, the billing service is typically collecting a percent of whatever is collected; therefore, the incentive and the headache to collect falls on the billing service. In addition, you can demand accountability from a billing service as compared to an employee – where too much pressure can lead to the inevitable – “I Quit!”
The misconception is that by outsourcing to a billing service, the Physician loses control of his/her billing. However, we maintain that outsourcing actually gives you full control of your billing, since the ease at which you can switch between billing companies is much simpler than switching between employees.