In medical practice, several rules govern the treatment of patients, privacy of data, and the behaviors of physicians. But no law stipulates that only the medical practice should handle medical billing for their clients, which has helped the offshore medical billing industry grow by leaps and bounds.

Offshore medical billing entails paying a third-party company to handle tasks related to medical billing. Some healthcare enterprise owners believe that resorting to offshore medical billing can reduce a medical practice’s control over its billing processes. They feel that offshore medical billing will restrict the ability to manage patient relationships and the medical practice’s finances.

Reasons to Opt for Offshore Medical Billing 

The truth is that offshore medical billing offers benefits that far outweigh any of these perceived risks. When offshore medical billing is done right, it gives the medical practice enough time and workforce to focus on increasing patient satisfaction by delivering premium healthcare services. Here are the top reasons to embrace offshore medical billing.

1. Precise and Prompt Confirmation of Insurance Eligibility

After a patient has submitted their insurance details, the information on medical service coverage must be confirmed with the insurer. But insurance eligibility verification is a tedious process and finding the time (amidst the very immersive nature of work at a medical practice) to get this done for each patient visit can be difficult for the relevant personnel.

You may decide to employ the services of ad-hoc staff to confirm patient eligibility or even extend the work hours of existing staff to work on verifying patients’ insurance coverage. However, this is likely to demotivate staff and increase the responsibilities of your office manager.

The best line of action will be to transfer the task to a reputable offshore medical biller. Offshore medical billing companies have access to the best-in-class insurance-verification software and medical billing personnel skilled in recording patient data as per the required format. Therefore, with the assistance of the offshore medical biller, you can automate the insurance eligibility process and achieve faster turnarounds.

2. Better Patient Data Security

Organizations with patient data breaches usually suffer dire consequences (financial penalties, risk of lawsuits, and loss of practice reputation). Therefore, the very future of your medical practice hinges on ensuring patient data security. Manual and paper-based medical billing processes will likely expose your medical practice to patient information leaks. Inability to secure your EHR and PMS also exposes you to the risk of data hacks.

Offshore medical billing companies are mandated to stick to the industry’s best practices, including HIPAA guidelines on patient data security. It will be easier and more cost-effective to employ the services of an offshore medical biller rather than trying to ensure that your practice’s IT systems are compliant with healthcare data security and privacy guidelines.

In fact, with your medical billing taken care of, your in-house IT staff can focus on assisting you with the smooth functioning of systems for patient visits and medical evaluations at your office.

3. Lower Processing Errors Translating to Quicker Revenue Collections.

Medical coding, billing, and claims processing are prone to errors in insurance verification, patient documentation, selection of medical codes, and handling of claim denials. Outsourcing your medical billing significantly reduces the likelihood of errors as medical billing companies specialize in billing and coding best practices and have real-time knowledge of regulations, trends, and procedures. Because of the frequency with which they handle medical billing tasks, your practice is guaranteed better accuracy and fewer errors, which augurs well for your practice’s overall revenue collections.

4. Regular Revenue Reporting and Analytics

A professional offshore medical billing will take over not just your medical coding and billing processes. They will also help you to understand better how revenues can be augmented. Elite Offshore Resources provides its clients regular financial reports on revenue cycle metrics (such as days in accounts receivables, net collections percentage, accounts over 90 days, and claim denials rate) to assess their medical billing and collections trends. The insights gained from such reports can be used to identify areas in need of improvements – from patient appointment booking to payment collection on the date of the patient’s visit.

5. Improved Compliance and Adherence to Important Revenue Impacting Deadlines

The healthcare industry is subject to many changing regulations. And the frequency with which these regulations are changed puts smaller and medium-sized medical practices at particular risk of non-compliance. For instance, the year 2022 saw the No Surprises Act being introduced. Then there are the Medicare and Medicaid renewal deadlines which must be adhered to; failure to do so will lead to a suspension of payments and termination of the provider’s ID resulting in non-payment of services rendered after that date. Also, a lack of awareness of new regulations can mean that you may be losing out on collecting for services that you didn’t know are billable.

A professional offshore medical billing partner will help you stay HIPAA compliant with your medical billing processes and systems and keep you informed of upcoming revenue impacting deadlines that must be adhered to.

6. Superior Patient Experience

An article published in the Harvard Business Review posits a steady and increasing rise in the expectations consumers hold of healthcare services. Any form of dissatisfaction with the service rendered by a medical practice (from the time the patient calls you for an appointment to the time they visit you for the medical service) can send patients off in another direction to get treatment elsewhere.

Handling non-clinical tasks in-house is time-consuming and will distract your staff from the goal of delivering a quality patient experience. On the other hand, outsourcing tasks related to medical billing will allow your staff to focus their efforts on improving the patient’s experience. Additionally, when you work with an offshore medical biller, your staff no longer must calculate the estimated cost for a procedure. Complaints and questions on patient billing will no longer clog your email inboxes or phone lines. Your staff will have more energy and time to commit to meeting patients’ fundamental needs. The improved accuracy in claim processing and clarity on the patient’s liability of the medical cost will significantly enhance the patient experience in dealing with your practice.

The above reasons should dispel any doubts you have about offshore medical billing. Elite Offshore Resources is committed to not just meeting clients’ expectations but exceeding those expectations by reducing costs and increasing revenues. In addition, we offer virtual administrative assistance for handling non-clinical tasks for your medical practice. Contact us now to know more.