Want To Improve Profitability for Your Medical Practice?

When in comes to increasing profitability, I see practices focus their efforts in collecting copayments and patient balances. Others look towards decreasing cost, like buying cheaper paper or going with a cheaper merchant vendor to help boost the bottom line. Both, of course, are important exercises for a business. But here is what I’ve noticed. There doesn’t seem to be an equal amount of energy put towards learning about medical coding and how it can have a significant impact on a practice’s numbers. Here is a truth. Money isn’t always lost when the patient is at check-in, or when a claim is submitted, or even when a practice buys paper at $40 a bundle instead of $35. Money is most likely lost inside the examining room as a result of poor documentation, which leads to poor coding. Now, billers and coders are usually on the ball with their practice’s billing and coding. They are familiar with the plans, how much each pays, how claims must be submitted and things like that. When I talk about the need to focus on billing & coding, I’m talking about medical coding training for physicians/providers. I have a friend who’s been in practice management consulting for 20 plus years. He once told me that medical practice’s call him in so that he can assist them in negotiating  better payment from the payers because they believe it is the way to increase revenue for a practice. Upon reviewing their numbers, my consultant friends ...
Source: Pediatric Inc - Category: Pediatricians Authors: Tags: Coding Revenue The Business of Medicine Healthcare Medical Billing Practice Management Source Type: blogs