Healthcare providers, whether they are clinicians, physicians or independent consultants, rarely have to worry about patient traffic or the volume of revenue their practice generates.

What’s problematic is getting visibility into:

·         Whether payments are being processed on time or not?

·         Whether they are spending their time purposefully (and not chasing collections from unverified patients)?

·         If there are changes in insurance coverage policies.

They will find just about any medical billing company ready to provide services that take care of the concerns above. That is not the problem. The problem is differentiating mediocre and substandard medical billing services from a solution that qualifies as a top medical billing company.

What are some ways healthcare providers can make this distinction?

Number One: Look at past performance. How well have they performed, especially with clinics that match your scale? Do clinics and other healthcare partners provide service testimonials?

Number Two: Don’t hesitate to ask for the hard numbers. The physician billing office is not an accountancy firm. You cannot investigate their claims. And you don’t have time to double check everything they say. So go ahead. Ask for performance statistics on how soon they:

· Are able to complete patients’ eligibility and benefits verification. (Teams with a good medical billing specialist on board will be able to do this in 48 hours or less).

· Frequently they follow up on your claims. Claims management is a big part of the revenue cycle for healthcare practitioners. If they’ve got this under control, you’ve got a good medical billing company on board.

· How frequently do they follow up on receivables and collections? This is important. The longer a collectible amount, i.e. your ‘accounts receivable’ is allowed to go stale, the less likely it is to be collected at all. Ask the medical billing services provider for their records on ageing receivables.

There’s much more we can discuss with regard to medical back office services. But in the meantime, if you have questions or comments about the same, feel free to post them below.