Healthcare Systems Adopt Trend of Outsourcing in the New Era of Value-Based Care

Accountable Care Organisation

In the time when both, federal and provincial healthcare quality initiatives have come up with healthcare reforms, thus making EHR mandatory in order to avail the incentives under ARRA, the compliance with Medicare Medical Billing norms, demand of documentation under Medicare’s Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) model and the transition of both ICD 10 and HIPAA 5010, health care documenting in healthcare would probably never be the same. Though these reforms have been introduced with the sole aim of increasing the clinical and operational efficiency in healthcare organizations, the physicians have a lot to cope up with and this can hinder them from focusing in their function of providing medical services.

In the era of value based care, physicians find it tough and time consuming to balance administrative along with their prime function of patient care on their own. Outsourcing the administrative processes which needs expertise and resources is significantly more appropriate approach when these aren’t available in house. Health care organizations and physicians are increasingly seeking contractors for services like billing, coding, medical staffing and information technology services in order to bridge the gap. The companies providing these services have no doubt proved to be beneficial for the growth of its clients. Moreover, it has been found that the growth in outsourcing between the 2010 and 2011 was reported to be around 13.1% with 20 outsourcing firms which served 16,463 clients.

Benefit of Outsourcing

Partnering with an outsourcing firm has brought more technology and expertise in the industry, thus expanding the job options in the field, along with helping physicians extract most of the money for the services they deliver.  Contrary to the popular belief that the small healthcare firms do not need outsourcing, truth is small facilities too are finding it beneficial to outsource as they adopt electronic billing and EMR implementation along other reforms in the new era of value-based care.

Outsourcing the task of medical billing relieves the medical professional from various administrative tasks. The health care organization can be saved from a few issues which are unavoidable like:

• Staff retention: with the outsourcing process, healthcare organization need not worry about recruiting, managing & retaining billing staff and training new billing staff  when old staff retires or moves on, hence helping in smooth functioning of the billing process
• Billing possible on all days: with in-house billing there is complete dependency on fixed staff members and in case of absence of any of the staff members or any holiday, the billing process is kept on hold, but with outsourcing this headache is eliminated ensuring on-going billing process throughout the year

Outsourcing can make your office run more efficiently and systematically with small investments which although go unnoticed, but are considerable in total like postage charges and telephone bills also reduce. Added costs for labour, office system and other operational expenses are also reduced considerably. Furthermore a better turnaround time with better revenue cycle is guaranteed along with improved collection rate on an average of nearly 20%.

MedicalBillersandCoders.com the biggest consortium of billing and coding experts, has been assisting medical practitioners and health care workers for over a decade now towards betterment of revenue cycle and management of administrative tasks. Our billing and coding experts are also constantly trained and updated with the latest reforms, thus rendering the clients stress free and relaxed as far as revenue is concerned.

Medical Billing professional’s career prospects brighten

Growth in Employment of medical record and health information technicians is expected to accelerate much faster than the average field according to the United States Bureau of Labor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported health information technicians are one of the 10 fastest-growing allied health occupations, being a challenging interesting career where you are compensated according to your level of skills and how effectively you use them.

Evolving prospects

Medical billers and coders requirement is escalating almost exponentially due to an aging population and changes in medical technology. As the healthcare field shifts patient documentation to electronic data storage methods, health information filed is undergoing a radical change and positions related to medical billing and coding demand will as a consequence, provide lots of options in the market.

• Expand your outlook- Medical billing professionals at this point can widen their scope of work, coders who have been serving one clinic for 15-20 years with their experience can expand their outlook and include a group of clinics in their network and consult and train other younger medical billing entrants
• Accountable Care Organization model – is attracting the attention of hospitals, hence changes in hospital billing structure and increased patient volume will require increased coders to align this process.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook reported Medical billing and coding demand accounted for 40% of opportunities in hospitals and the rest in provider offices, nursing care, outpatient centers and home health service areas
• Income Potential- Medical billing and coding demand in big cities equals to more wages compared to smaller cities, and hospitals offer better compensation compared to clinics. According to statistics, the median income for medical billing and coding jobs ranges between $35,999 and $44,562, topping out around $74,000

Moreover the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting an 18% growth in job prospects between 2006 and 2016 and Pharmacies and insurance companies are also experiencing a growing medical billing and coding demand. Besides being restricted to only the doctor’s office the scope of medical billing has now grown to hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, mental healthcare facilities, rehabilitation centers, insurance companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), consulting firms, and health data organizations, or even from home.

Coders who are proficient with healthcare compliances like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are already on the way to changing their work scope, Medicialbillersandcoders.com experts fulfill this need as key players in the healthcare workplace to deliver quality healthcare by capturing accurate and timely medical data. Our Coding professionals possess a thorough understanding of the health record’s content we have thousands of medical billers and our certified medical coders are trained to understand procedures to be coded better.