Third-party revenue cycle management companies can do just that. The Midland Group offers hospitals a wide range of revenue cycle services, including our proven patient-focused payment plans and bill tracking that works. While hospitals can certainly attempt to manage their own in-house payment plans, there are several benefits to outsourcing payment plans to third-party vendors.

Medical Billing In-House

If you are working with a small population of patients in your hospital, and see less than 500 claims per year, you may find that sticking with billing in-house may work just fine. You may also opt to stay in-house if you have the appropriate number of staff who are already knowledgeable and experienced with billing.

One disadvantage that you may run into if you stay with in-house billing is the expertise gap that exists if your knowledgeable billing staff quit unexpectedly. If you only have one or two individuals in your billing department and they both call in sick or have an emergency, your billing department slows down significantly until they can be back in the office.

Outsourcing to Third-Party Vendors

Whenever a hospital allows a third-party vendor to take over their billing department, they free up valuable resources. Third-party vendors can discuss with patients about setting up payment plans that are designed specifically for that patient. Third-party vendors will send multiple emails, calls, and regular mail to complete payment plans for the hospitals.

When outsourcing to third-party vendors, hospitals find that a specialized team of revenue cycle management experts can manage thousands of payment plans in a fraction of the time that it takes an in-house billing staff to do the same. In addition, outsourcing hospital payment plans means that the hospital will not have to hire as many billing staff, and the in-house billing department can focus on serving patients’ immediate needs.

It would be extremely smart for a company to utilize a third-party medical billing vendor if they experience high employee turnover. This is because all employees must be fully trained and understand HIPAA privacy regulations and the need to protect sensitive patient data. Training on such topics can take weeks or months until the employee is comfortable in that subject.

Another benefit of using a third-party vendor for medical billing is that it helps reduce the amounts of errors that occur. Whenever a mistake occurs in claims under in-house billing, it can take them longer to fix the mistake because billing staff typically juggle a multitude of tasks. As such, many hospitals choose to outsource payment plans to a specialized third-party billing company because they find it to be more efficient, have fewer mistakes, and be beneficial for their billing department.

Now What?

If your billing department does not have the ability or resources to reach out to all your patients, you may want to consider outsourcing to a revenue cycle management company. The Midland Group is a dedicated revenue cycle management team that provides clients with first-class patient advocacy and maximizes reimbursements. We combine the unique offering of being a proactive partner while delivering every solution in one call, early in the process. Contact us today to learn more about the services we provide to help improve your hospital’s revenue cycle.

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What Can Third-Party Billing Companies Offer?

Healthcare providers can identify how much they want to be involved in their operations and whether they want their staff to perform certain functions. Some organizations choose to use in-house processing, where providers cross-train employees and improve employee utilization by sharing job functions. Other organizations may not have the time or resources to do this, which is why they choose to outsource to a third-party billing company.

Each organization gets to choose what they want their third-party billing company to take over. The organization should prepare to bring its share of the necessary expertise to the table. An advantage of working with a third-party billing company is that they are typically more experienced with the overall knowledge of multiple player systems, such as Medicare, worker’s compensation policies, and commonly managed care plans. All third-party billing companies must have the technology and skilled staff to handle specific issues at any given point.

How Third-Party Billing Companies Can Improve Your Revenue Cycle

A healthy revenue cycle is crucial for maintaining the financial well being of your healthcare facility. One way to improve your revenue cycle is to reduce your facility’s AR days. Several factors that go into maintaining a healthy revenue cycle include effective scheduling, patient registration and eligibility checks, up-front payment collection (copayments and deductibles), claim management, medical billing, and billing follow-up. If any of those factors start to slip, the revenue cycle can be easily disrupted, causing an increase in AR days, which can be detrimental to your organization’s financial health.

When it comes to your organization’s financial well-being, billing operations is an essential aspect of what it takes to manage a healthy and thriving healthcare facility. If you find that your healthcare facility is struggling, there is still a chance to improve your revenue cycle process. It’s important to know what is wrong with your current revenue cycle process and outsource some functions to a reliable third-party billing company to help you resolve claims more effectively.

Now What?

As a third-party billing specialist, The Midland Group will submit, process, and collect all third-party liability claims necessary to collect as much revenue as possible for the hospital and to reduce the patient’s personal financial burden. Our trained medical billing professionals are familiar with all the tools and pertinent documents needed to submit a third-party liability claim and successfully collect the amounts of money owed. We have a firm knowledge of all industry standards, clearinghouse procedures, and even the adjudication process.

Contact us today to learn about the many services we provide to help your hospital reduce AR days and gain maximum revenue.

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