Medical Billing Consultants Job Description – A Deep Insight – Part - II

In part – I of the article, under the same title and introduction, we discussed the various responsibilities and other duties of a Medicare biller’s profile, along with a detailed introduction. In this article, we are continuing with the same and various other aspects, so as to make it easy for you to have a good understanding of a medical billing consultant’s job before thinking of making it as a career option for you and appearing in interviews. So here we go:
Do you have a certification or degree in health care industry? Do you have excellent communication skills? Are you good in maintaining records? If a ‘yes’ is your answers to all these questions, then you are the ideal contender for a medical billing consultant job. Keep reading further to know more about the various responsibilities of a Medicare biller’s profile.
Responsibilities
The primary job responsibilities of medical billing consultants are to keep and maintain an updated record of patients' medical diagnosis and history, procedure codes, and other information required for patient’s billing. Additionally, they are also responsible for tracking outstanding balances, billing health care providers or patients for the medical services provided. They make payment arrangements with the patients, collect previous dues and issue no dues certificates at the time of discharge.
Not only this, they also work with physicians or health care professionals if the patients’ information is not accurate or unclear to enter and code the information in the database. Such information is vital for the hospital and the patients as the information is helpful in financial reimbursements.
Along with Medicare billing and coding, a Medicare biller contacts patients for various information, filing paper-work, medical-records; helps in scheduling appointments, and handles phone communication in the hospitals or physicians clinic.
Remuneration
Medicare billers enjoy good salary packages. However, the packages vary depending on the location where you are working and the employer with whom you are working. It also depends on the responsibilities, which you are expected to carry out on your job. Indeed.com listed a national average salary of $35,000 per year for the medical assistants in the health industry in March 2010.
Industry updates
As per the statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “20 percent growth in health assistant jobs is expected between 2008 and 2018.” And the reasons stated behind this hike are: a need for maintaining electronic medical records, increase in the need of medical tests and procedures due to high rise in the population worldwide.

Log on to www.activemds.com, an innovative Medical Billing, Practice Management and Consulting Company, if you are looking for impeccable services from a medical billing services provider.

Frequently Asked Questions about Outsourcing Medicare Billing

If you run a hospital or clinic, then it is evident that you must be aware with all the duties or responsibilities need to carry to make it a successful and friendly venture. A lot of concern is required for its adequate management in terms of recruitment of sufficient staff members, maintenance of patient records with all the major and major details, track of all the basic medical services provided to patients with good care and assistance and so on.

Sometimes it becomes difficult for medical practitioner or doctor to carry out the assigned duties perfectly. As a result he seeks help from someone to do so. He plans to hire services of outsource company to undertake various administrative and clinical works of health care industry. Hire a company to outsource work may not be a difficult task till you get the answers to following questions such as:

Why to get Medicare billing work outsourced?
Since, we all know that outsource of the work is only done when it’s become difficult to handle, a reliable medical billing outsource company is responsible to offer the physician with accurate and efficient perspective to handle all the records or regular basis. It eliminates the time and money wastage.

What are the basic outsourcing services?
As all providers have different rules and regulations for its working so, it is best to look for the outsource company, which is flexible enough to offer state of the art services at affordable rates. It offers the record keeping, staffing and in office billing services by charging a certain amount of fees for it.

What are the outsourcing rates?
Usually a company should charge on percentage base of receipts. It waits till you get paid fully. There are several factors to keep in mind when you charge such as service type, adjustment charges, and amount of services undertaken and up to what time.

What privacy norms are undertaken by the outsource company?
To maintain the confidential information and data, a company takes the back up of all the receivable accounts records daily to avoid any displacement or destruction of important files.

Which mode of payment is used?
The outsource company bears the flexible mode of payment that is cheques transfers, online bank transfers, or courier facility. It ensures the cheques or payment is made specifically on your name or company name, whichever is suitable. Once a payment is dispatched you are intimated via e-mail or phone call.

How to get started?
It is quite simple contact us via email or call and our representative will assist you with the required information. Just provide the requisite detail about the type of services required in admin or clinical sector with all the special concerns.

Thus, it is never too late to get the Medicare billing outsource from the reputed company to enjoy the hassle free working of the clinical or health institution. For more information, Click here

Discover the Vetting Criteria to Find the Right Medical Billing Service for Your Practice – II

This article is in continuation to the article written earlier under the same title and the introduction.

When Juan Pablo, MD, first opened his medical practice in the US, 7-years ago, his billing system was completely a mess. His practice did not at all follow up aggressively enough with his patients, who failed to pay the fees, as well as insurance company payments were continuously delayed by claims fraught with coding errors and misplaced numbers.

Fortunately, all of this took a U-turn when he decided to outsource his medical billing requirements to a well-established service provider. And since then, for Mr. Juan, there has been no looking back, as he is earning more money and the collections have increased by 30% and he is being paid faster. In this part of article, we would be continue to discuss the key vetting criteria that can greatly help to find the best billing service for any kind of health care facility or a medical practice.

• Ask for References -



Though a few big national companies exist, most billing firms are local operations in the US. Do your homework – avail references not only from your fellow doctors, but from your type of practice, specific specialty and type of payer.



Moreover, ensure that your contract includes a “cancellation/termination clause”, in case; the service provider does not deliver satisfied results. Additionally, you can negotiate a clause that alleviates rates after a particular period -say, 6-months if certain accounts receivables or collection ratios targets are not met.



• Decide How Much Service You Entail -



Billing firms offer multiple levels of service: filling claims and availing bills out of patients; accounts receivable management and follow-up and collections. Account receivable management services include ensuring that claims are clear, charges are coded accurately and fee schedules are updated regularly.



Furthermore, within each of service offered, you also have an array of options. Some companies will provide you with a computer so that one of your employees can do the data entry task; others will take your super-bills or charge slips in batches by courier and manually store them into their computers. Some billing firms offer both options.



Be sure you are availing true value of every penny spend. In case, a billing service is charging 15% of total collections, for instance, you must expect to avail comprehensive accounts receivable management.



In the last part of the article, we will be continuing the same discussion. However, for more details on medical billing, you can visit www.activemds.com.

Discover the Vetting Criteria to Find the Right Medical Billing Service for Your Practice - I

When Juan Pablo, MD, first opened his medical practice in the US, 7-years ago, his billing system was completely a mess. His practice did not at all follow up aggressively enough with his patients, who failed to pay the fees, as well as insurance company payments were continuously delayed by claims fraught with coding errors and misplaced numbers.

Fortunately, all of this took a U-turn when he decided to outsource his medical billing requirements to a well-established service provider. And since then, for Mr. Juan, there has been no looking back, as he is earning more money and the collections have increased by 30% and he is being paid faster. In this article, we would be discussing the key vetting criteria that can greatly help to find the best billing service for any kind of health care facility or a medical practice.

• A good billing service will partner with your practice to deliver outstanding results
  These are the advantages of outsourcing billing needs that often, 3rd-party billing firms like to tout: fewer staff headaches and higher collection rates. You can save thousands of dollars by outsourcing your practice's billing operations. For many physicians, though, the idea to outsource is not always so clear. Remember, do not count on outsourcing costing you less - it does not always.
  
  The bigger question is who is going to do the job better?
  That is a tough question to answer. Even many experts in the billing sector acknowledge that quality among billing firms – many of them mom-and-pop firms varies considerably.

• It needs a leap of faith to outsource the billing function!
  So, how can you decide whether outsourcing your needs to a medical biller is right for you and how to find a reputable one? Billing services boasts of splendid results – but can they deliver? Yes, many can. In order to identify real expertise from marketing hype, physicians and interns need to dig a little deeper than performance track record metrics.

• Assess Cost and Advantages -
  Billing service providers typically charge a percentage of fees that the total amount they collect. The percentage they demand differs both by service provider and by practice type. Most companies charge general internal medical practices higher than subspecialty practices, as primary care doctors generate more medical bills for smaller amounts, which in turn, mean more work for billing company. In general, physicians can expect to pay 9-11% of their total collectibles to outside billing firms.
  
  Experts strongly recommend that medical practitioners should invite potential outsourcing organizations to provide them with a cost estimate based on the practice's billing data, payer mix and charge volume. The doctors must then, assess all these factors and find the best suitable outsourcing company. Ideally, you will benefit from the billing service if you would be able to cut the size of your billing staff.

In the next part of the article, we will be continuing the same discussion. However, for more details on medical billing, you can visit www.activemds.com.

A Guide to Electronic Medical Records – Part II

This article is in continuation to the article that was written earlier under the same title and introduction.

The medical industry is full of complex tasks and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled by different members of the fraternity. They each have assigned tasks that have to be performed according to the need of the hour and the requirement of the moment. Medical billing is one of these things that need to be taken care of in the medical system. This is because when money matters complicate, everything suffers. This calls for the need for effective money management to be done. Be it in terms of providing the right sort of bills, or electronic record keeping, managing the organization or looking after the welfare of the patients, it all needs to be done carefully, so as to help the organization grow over the years.

The important task is to find an ideal mode of keeping medical records so that they can be used as per requirements. Electronic Medical records kept by special companies who offer these services are considered to be one of the best ways of maintaining records for the purpose of retrieving them as per needs and requirements.

It is essential to trust on the best in the business as they can guarantee quick and efficient services and that too at the most affordable rate.

You need to make sure that the firm you are going to trust for this task of medical billing is well reputed and experienced; giving your work into the hands of new and inexperienced might not be the best idea. It’s good to do a little homework about the company so that one can find out whether or not it’s one worth working with.

Asking for quotes is the next step. So when one has located a few companies offering medical billing services in the vicinity, there is need for asking them for quotes for the sort of work you are going to offer to them. Most firms these days have the facility of giving free quotes, thus making things easier for you. All you need to do is to choose to accord to your needs, and cost-affectivity, the one that best suits your requirements.

It is also important of determine that the company delivers, quick, and reliable solutions. There is no room for error in the medical field and this applies to record keeping as well. The record-keeping will have a direct impact on the quality of healthcare services being rendered to the patients and one needs to be sure that the best services are trusted for maintaining long term medical records.

Find out more about Electronic medical records facility at http://www.activemds.com/

At Times of Medical Emergencies, Seek Vital Help from Electronic Medical Records

Did you know that people meet with accidents as much as every few seconds in the world? The roads are becoming more and more populated and rash drivers have unleashed such a plethora for the commoner that having a road accident isn't something out of the ordinary anymore. There are people dying each day due to these accidents.

As for the ones who are critical and are taken to the hospital for treatment, do you think it would be able to treat them ideally if there wasn't a proper medical record keeping system available in the industry? Miracles are happening every day in hospitals and it is partly because of the investment in the sensible technology of electronic record keeping. When a person meets with an accident and is taken to the hospital, he/she can be traced down with the use of these electronic medical records, and the person's entire medical history can be found online.

The family is the one truly devastated when a person has an accident. Imagine having to check at all local hospitals to find where your loved one is being treated, it would be excruciating. This is why electronic record keeping is proving to be a great help. The hospital authorities can not only find the medical history of the person and start treatment, but also contact his/ her family and friends and inform them about the accident.

In the cases where people die in road accidents, the insurance companies will have their part to play. Medical records need to be really strong for the person if the family has to receive the claims and this can be easily achieved with the help of these electronic records. No-one can replace a deceased loved one, however, the family gets financial support with the help of these companies providing excellent record keeping solutions for the benefit of common people as well as the hospitals. This is a two-way process that can be handled well by the service providing companies so that nobody has to suffer the lack of records in critical situations.

The good part is that there are companies available in plenty that do this sort of record keeping and medical billing for the hospitals. It won’t even cost them too much money and it’s definitely worth investing to be able to guarantee saving a number of lives in the future. This means that the hospitals can concentrate on their sole aim better now and people's lives can definitely be saved when accidents occur.

Find out more about electronic medical records at http://www.activemds.com/

Medical billing can be made much easier with the right steps

The medical industry is full of complex processes but the main aim of the staff of the hospital needs to be focused towards caring for the patients in the best possible way. They should have outsourcing done for whatever other management needs there might be, so that the interests of the patients aren't hindered.

There are services available these days for the best state of art electronic billing which is very essential for the hospitals. This is because the records thus maintained are clear and precise and can be retrieved even after many years as per the requirements. The computerized medical billing for the patients is also very accurate and now they don't need to worry about any extra bills included in their payable amount towards the hospital.

Whether it is discovering how much bills a particular patient needs to pay, or it is keeping records for legal needs, this type of service is suits best in diverse range of needs. You won’t need to worry about the financial position of the facility anymore and then more and more efforts can be put towards making the services better for patients in the near future.

It shall definitely prove to be a value added service for the organization and you won’t regret having taken this step in the time to come. It shall improve the basic functionality of the organization and make it worth more in the future prospects of achieving a great place for all the health care needs.

You can avail the best in the line services when it comes to record keeping and managing data so well that you won’t even need to cross check them every now and then. Another important feature that the company specializing in this form of electronic record keeping provides is financial reporting, which is another requisite for hospitals. They need to know about their true financial position so that they can decide their plan of action in the time to come. The medical facilities can have an insight into the financial books of the hospital easily and this would be able to benefit them greatly.

The best part is that these services are going to be offered at fairly affordable rates and you won’t need to worry about any huge money spending that this type of services shall get for you. You need to simply give them a call and soon the professionals of the company would be able to suggest what sort of services best suits to your health care services and other important operations in the facility.

Find out more about medical billing at http://www.activemds.com