Substance Abuse Treatment Centers: What to Know About Outsourcing Your Medical Billing Services

The goal of every substance abuse treatment facility is to help people recover from substance use disorders. Unfortunately, these facilities also have to deal with the complexities of behavioral health medical billing. Substance abuse billing comes with unique challenges, causing providers to spend precious time chasing payments rather than focusing on providing proper quality care. 

As a medical billing services company with more than 35+ years of experience, Coronis Health is committed to constantly adapting to the healthcare industry’s dynamic landscape. We keep abreast of recent guidelines, report on current and emerging health issues, and make sure your substance abuse billing services are aligned with new regulations. 

We partner with your organization to provide medical billing and coding solutions that ensure your collections are easy to manage and that denials are kept to an absolute minimum. We know you provide life-changing treatment to your patients, and we want to take the burden of substance abuse medical billing off your shoulders so you can do what you do best.

How Does Outsourcing Medical Billing Work for Substance Abuse Treatment Centers?

The landscape for mental and behavioral health is evolving rapidly. In addition to the time-consuming task of billing and coding, you are confronted daily with changing regulations, payment models, and substance abuse billing software, as well as challenges that come with out-of-network billing. 

Drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers often struggle with billing issues, resulting in delayed payments and revenue loss. By outsourcing medical billing, you gain a team of expert billers who will handle these challenges for you. A substance abuse billing company will monitor accounts receivable, promote best practices, and increase reimbursements. Specifically, a medical billing company will provide the following services:

• Facility credentialing
• Benefits verification
• Utilization review
• EMR/technology integration
• Collections
• Financial analysis & reporting
• Account management

What Are the Costs Associated With Outsourcing Medical Billing?

The costs and fees associated with medical billing for behavioral health services will vary depending on the arrangement. Some will charge a percentage of the collection claims, while other companies charge a flat fee or monthly rate. Facilities typically find that no matter how the cost is calculated, the value of a professional billing company far outweighs the expense associated with their services.

How Outsourcing Medical Billing Can Benefit Your Facility 

Medical billing is a demanding and tedious task that requires experience, expertise, and knowledge of industry standards. If your billing cycle is not optimized, you may be losing revenue before you even realize you are losing it. Outsourcing medical billing can help you build more efficient revenue cycle management to ensure your substance abuse treatment facility remains financially independent. Specifically, outsourcing medical billing provides the following benefits:

• Lower Costs – The money spent to train, recertify, and keep medical billers up to date on the latest regulations is an additional cost that can be eliminated when the billing process is outsourced. 
• Expertise – Outsourcing to billing experts who have access to the most advanced behavioral health medical billing software ensures you see fewer mistakes with billing, which means your net collections increase, your denials decrease, and your operational costs are more manageable. 
• Insight – Financial reports provide you more insight into what affects your revenue cycle for greater efficiency and profitability. 
• Better Decision Making – Financial expertise enables you to make better decisions and establish the best practices in your facility.
• Experience – Experience in billing and coding services for all types of substance abuse treatment centers provides a deeper understanding of how insurers respond to different types of claims.
• Compliance – Outsourcing your medical billing provides you with a team that focuses 100% of their time on your billing. You will see an improvement in compliance with billing regulations as your outsourced billing is following the guidelines set forth by the government and CMS. 
• Quality Patient Care – You enable your staff to focus on creating the best experience for your patients. Outsourcing medical billing gives your staff the freedom to engage with patients without the stress of adding discussions about billing to the exchange. With a better patient experience, you will see higher patient retention and satisfaction.

Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing an Outsourced Medical Billing Company

Outsourcing your medical billing lets you focus more on treatment and less on your back-office processes. However, partnering with the wrong company may result in more problems than you currently have. There are critical factors to consider when you are selecting the best medical billing company for your facility.

Reputation

A true partner is someone you can trust, which is why a complete and comprehensive background check is necessary. Do your research. Ask trusted colleagues for referrals. Ask medical professionals because you are more likely to receive reliable information from a trusted source rather than anonymous consumer reviews online.

Expertise

You will face unique challenges in your industry, and you want billers with expertise in your specialty to ensure correct billing. Choose a company that is familiar with substance abuse treatment coding, compliance, and documentation requirements, including all addiction billing standards and laws. Otherwise, you may suffer from coding inaccuracies, claim denials, and low cash flow, defeating the purpose of outsourcing.

HIPAA Compliance with Strong Privacy Protection Procedures

You have a direct responsibility to address healthcare privacy and security. By working with an experienced company with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance, you get peace of mind knowing that the company’s practices ensure the confidential handling of a patient’s health information. In addition to HIPAA, your outsourcing provider should understand other laws, medical regulations, and guidelines pertaining to your specific industry.

Maintaining patient privacy should be a top priority. The company you choose must enforce plans to protect privacy while also preventing abuse and fraud.

Transparency

You may be outsourcing your medical billing process, but you still want to be aware of the status of your claims. It’s still your business, after all. Your billing specialist must provide you with regular and transparent reports that allow you to oversee the billing process to ensure efficiency and manage your facility’s financial health.

Measurable Results

Your medical billing partner should help you achieve a more controlled approach to revenue cycle management. This proves to be more sustainable because when your medical billing process is up to date, efficient, and free of human error, you can receive payments in a shorter amount of time. Comprehensive performance reports keep you informed of critical financial numbers, allowing you to maintain control of your revenue cycle management without having to perform the tasks yourself.

Questions About Outsourcing Your Medical Billing Services? Contact Coronis Health Today

Outsourcing your billing and coding is one of the most significant practice management decisions your facility will ever make. Coronis Health employs top medical billers in the country, pooling their global resources to bring customers the best in medical billing and revenue cycle management. We’ll work with you to build data-driven solutions that meet your specific needs, allowing you to focus on treating patients. To learn more, contact Coronis Health to request your free financial checkup.

from
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