Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Complex Art of Medical Billing and Collections

By Nehag Gupta

Medical Billing and Collections may sound like a simple term but, in reality, it is an extremely complex process, where a thorough understanding of the rules of the health insurance providers and the medical billing process are a pre-requisite.

Overview of the Process

Whenever a hospital, a doctor or any other health care set up provides medical aid and other related services to a patient, they have to claim reimbursement from insurance providers. That's where the medical biller comes in. He takes stock of the services that have been rendered to the patient by studying the bills attached to his records. After that, he confirms the name of the insurance provider covering the patient. And finally, he fills out the relevant forms, completes the necessary paper work, and files the claims.

Doctors and Medical Billing and Collections

Doctors are not trained to handle the procedure of billing and collection of dues. When it comes to technicalities like that they are completely at sea. To do things like collecting accounts receivable, running behind insurance companies for payments, and keeping track of accounts that are past due is beyond them. Therefore, they depend on professionals to handle medical billing, coding and other related responsibilities, leaving them free to do what they are good at - administering to patients.

The Brave and Mighty Medical Billers

Medical billers need to be extremely responsible people, as they have a crucial task to perform. A lot of responsibilities fall within their purview such as:

Organizing medical statements and bills and ensuring that they are error free
Reviewing all the charge slips and keeping track of payments
Calling up collection agencies and negotiating with them
Responding to patient queries pertaining to the billing routine of the office
Following up with insurance companies on the status of the claim

To be a skilled medical biller, he also needs to be aware of Medicare rules, medical diseases and conditions, medical codes, compliance issues... the list is virtually endless. In addition to medical billing, coding, some billers also handle medical transcription.


No comments:

Post a Comment