The practice of submitting and following up on claims with health insurance companies in order to get reimbursement for services given by a healthcare professional is known as medical billing. Simply put, medical billing is where medical service is converted into a billing claim.
In a healthcare facility, the medical biller’s job is to follow up on claims and ensure that the practice is reimbursed for the services provided by the clinicians. A knowledgeable biller can help the practice’s revenue performance a great deal.
Medical billing, to put it another way, is where billers file health insurance claims on behalf of the patients to a number of health insurance payers in order to get reimbursements for the services that have been provided in a medical facility.
NOTE: Medical Coding Is Not the Same as Medical Billing
The backbone of the healthcare revenue cycle is medical billing and coding, which ensures repayment of the service that has been provided to the patient by a healthcare facility.
Medical billing and coding require accurate and full clinical documentation during patient contact. “Do not code it or bill for it if it is not documented in the medical record,” is the golden rule in healthcare billing and coding departments.
A patient encounter in a doctor’s office, hospital, or other care delivery venue is the starting point for medical coding. When a patient encounter happens, clinicians document the visit or treatment in the patient’s medical record and explain why certain services, materials, or procedures were provided.
A medical coder’s main job is to look over clinical statements and assign standard codes using the CPT®, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS Level II classification systems. Medical billers, on the other hand, handle and follow up on claims filed to health insurance companies for compensation of healthcare services given.
Medical coders and billers may be the same individual or collaborate to guarantee that invoices are paid correctly. Medical billing and coding professionals are primarily responsible for ensuring that revenue cycles in medical offices function properly.
Medical billers communicate with doctors and other healthcare experts on a regular basis to clarify diagnoses and acquire further information. The medical biller, like the medical coder, must be able to read a medical record and be familiar with CPT®, HCPCS Level II, and ICD-10-CM codes.
What Is the Medical Billing Process?
Medical billing entails a number of steps, each of which is critical to ensure that a healthcare practice receives the money it is entitled to. If any of these processes are skipped or performed poorly, it might have a detrimental impact on the revenue cycle of the practice.
Registration of Patient
This stage involves activities such as check-in and insurance eligibility and verification, as well as establishing financial responsibility for a patient visit. This information is used by a medical biller to collect any necessary co-payments and determine which services the patient’s insurance plan covers.Diagnostic and Procedural Coding
After the patient has checked out, a medical biller is in charge of converting the visit report into diagnostic and procedure codes. After that, he or she validates charges and generates a superbill, which is an itemized form that specifies services performed to a patient and is sent to a payer for reimbursement.Generation & Submission of Claims
A claim is delivered electronically to the insurance company for payment after a medical biller produces it, analyses the codes used on it, and confirms it fulfills payer and HIPAA compliance rules. Before submitting a report back to the provider, the payer undertakes claim adjudication to analyze each claim and accept, reject, or deny it.Patient’s Payment Collection
A medical biller is responsible for generating a statement for patients who have an outstanding balance with the practice. The statement is frequently in the form of a thorough benefit explanation (EOB). When a patient fails to pay his or her payment on time, the medical biller usually starts the collection procedure.
What Does A Medical Biller Do?
A medical biller’s main responsibility is to submit technical or professional medical claims to insurance companies on time. The position could be in a doctor’s office, a hospital, a nursing home, or another healthcare facility.
What does a medical biller do on a daily basis? The specific tasks you’ll be responsible for, as well as the amount of time you’ll spend on them, will differ depending on the setting. Nonetheless, as a medical biller you will:
- Examine patient bills for accuracy and completeness, as well as retrieving any information that is missing.
- Obtain referrals and pre-authorizations for procedures, when needed.
- Utilize billing software, prepare, review, and transmit claims, including electronic and paper claim processing.
- For treatments, hospitalizations, and operations, check eligibility and benefits verification.
- If required, call insurance companies to inquire about any payment discrepancies.
- Identify and bill secondary and tertiary insurances.
- Keep track of delinquent claims within the billing cycle’s normal timeframe.
- Ensure that each insurance payment is accurate and in accordance with the contract discount.
- Review finances to ensure patient follow-up is covered.
- Take care of any patient or insurance-related phone calls connected to allocated accounts.
- Create payment programs for patients and work collection accounts.
- Perform research and filing appeals for claims that have been refused.
- Run collecting reports and updating cash spreadsheets.
- Rate adjustments necessitate updating billing software.
In addition to these general duties, an individual employer may request that you perform other duties that fit with your training and background experience or provide further training for new duties.
What Qualities Make a Good Medical Billing Specialist?
A job as a medical billing specialist might be ideal for you if you’ve been exploring a career in the healthcare field, want to work with healthcare professionals, and can bear with paperwork and the legacy style of work that some nonprofits are still using.
Medical billing experts operate in a range of settings, including family practices, walk-in clinics, and hospitals, to name a few.
Solid Communication Skills
Good communication skills are one of the most critical attributes for a medical billing specialist as the majority of the job entails interacting with others.
Medical billing professionals are required to check patients’ bills for accuracy. In case there’s some discrepancy, medical billers will have to routinely and actively coordinate with the healthcare provider to fix it. So, on their part, it’s critical to keep the other party in the loop throughout the communication cycle to fill the information gaps.
Problem Solving Skills
Another crucial characteristic for a medical billing specialist is the capacity to solve problems. Their work responsibilities go beyond just issuing bills to actively communicating with insurance providers and patients when payments get late or some discrepancy shows up.
A medical billing professional should strive to appeal refused claims or otherwise obtain the necessary payment when speaking with insurance companies regarding denied claims. You may be in charge of setting up work collection accounts and patient payment plans with patients.
Active Listening Skills
Another critical ability for a medical billing professional that is inseparably linked to effective communication is active listening. Medical billing specialists must not only communicate with one another, but they must also communicate with others for the effective delivery of end-to-end services.
Active listening is also essential when a medical billing specialist communicates with the healthcare providers with whom they work. When they detail the operations that were performed or any special considerations that should be made, they must be able to pay full attention to them.
Dependable Organizational Skills
What matters most to get the job done effectively for a medical biller is their organizational skills, and the organizational system of the place they work in. Medical billing professionals want to be able to find information quickly not only for their own needs but also for the needs of others.
Patients and insurance companies will want to be able to look up different claims fast and simply if they call. A medical billing professional will also want to maintain track of any payments and amounts owed to them. They may also be required to document the practice’s business expenses, depending on where they work.
Effective Time Management Skills
The importance of time management skills cannot be stressed enough for a medical biller. As many of the medical billers design and follow their own daily work schedules while working out of the clinic, hospital, or doctor’s office where they serve, time management is imperative for them.
With their work being a bit more independent than that of other healthcare professionals, effective time management translates into how they maximize their productivity. They usually have supervisors who may double-check their productivity levels to ensure they aren’t lagging behind.
Conflict Management Skills
At times, a medical billing professional will need to employ conflict resolution skills. Working as a medical billing professional can be demanding at times, especially when it comes to following up on patient payments.
A medical billing specialist will have to strike a balance between compromise and the best answer for the business. Making long-term payment plans or engaging with insurance firms to try to get more of a claim paid are common examples.
What Are the Top Challenges In Medical Billing?
Healthcare providers who do not streamline their medical billing procedures threaten their practice’s financial viability. They may, however, enhance reimbursement and optimize their revenue cycle by concentrating on resolving typical issues in the process.
The following are some of the most significant challenges in medical billing:
Refused Claims
When a claim is processed and subsequently rejected by a payer, it is known as claim denial. Soft, harsh, avoidable, clinical, and administrative denials are the five types of denials. The majority of refused claims are avoidable, and more than half of them can be resubmitted once they’ve been fixed.
Patient Ineligibility
Patient eligibility is probably the most common reason for refused claims, which means the service submitted for payment isn’t covered by the insurance plan for which it’s being billed. The status and coverage of a patient’s health insurance must be verified by front-office staff.
Information Gaps
There are some medical practices that continue to complete their denial management process by hand, which typically leads to increased human errors and a lack of transparency. A claim can be refused even if only a tiny amount of patient information is incorrect or incomplete.
Lack of Automation
Legacy billing systems with manual claim processing take a long time and extends the time it takes for a claim to be processed. Advanced claims reporting and tailored decision support are not available to healthcare providers who do not automate their medical billing process.
Lack of Technology
Medical practices are unlikely to be able to expedite their denial management and receive revenue owed to them by patients and payers without the use of technology to properly prioritize, manage, and channel claims. Even if a practice’s personnel is well-versed in the procedure, the lack of appropriate technology to handle claims makes it difficult to manage them effectively.
The Evolution & Future of Medical Billing
Medical billing procedures used to be done using paper-based methods and handwritten records, but with the advent of different technologies in the healthcare industry, the process has been transformed into an electronic one. This has led to time and money savings, as well as a reduction in human and administrative errors.
Medical billing will almost certainly continue to be shaped by technology. Many customers have grown to expect quick service and easy access to information, and technologies that facilitate a simplified patient experience and boost patient engagement. Computer-Assisted Coding (CAC) and blockchain are two essential technologies that are expected to play a significant role in the future of medical billing.
CAC boosts productivity while also reducing claim backlogs. It can help practitioners identify gaps in clinical documentation and bill patients more quickly. On the other hand, implementing blockchain data storage in EHRs could improve privacy protections, make information interchange easier and more efficient, and give patients more control over their personal data.