Outsourcing Back Office Operations Improves Medical Practice Bottom Line and Patient Care
Physicians selling their practices to larger healthcare systems has been in an upward trend over the last few decades. Between 1983–2014, the percentage of physicians in private practices fell from 41% to 17%, while the percentage of physicians in practices with 25 or more doctors grew fourfold to 20%; 2016 marked the first year in which less than half of practicing physicians owned their own practice, at just 47.1 percent.(1) Large group settings don't always mean upgraded patient care. In fact, practices with one to two physicians had 33 percent fewer preventable hospital admissions compared with practices with 10 to 19 physicians; practices with three to nine physicians had 27 percent fewer admissions.2 As a result, the solution to bolstering efficiency and patient care does not lie in consolidation, according to Dr.
"Outsourcing billing and collections functions helps reduce the burden of filing insurance claims and raising practice revenue,"
Medical costs are skyrocketing--up to
Many physicians turn to selling their practices, but being acquired by large organizations doesn't necessarily improve patient care.(3) Hospitals bought 5,000 practices between July, 2015 and July, 2016 alone. Why did physicians sell? They sought stability and assistance with increasing administrative tasks due to evolving regulatory changes which make it more difficult to navigate the requirements for medical billing to be approved, leading to more claims denials.(4)
Responsible outsourcing of back office functions can save significant money related to medical practice billing and receivables, and could prevent doctors' offices from being swallowed up by large organizations, retaining better quality of care. Also, outsourcing to trained and experienced billing services upgrades regulatory compliance and produces fewer claims denials (which denials can eat up as much as 10% of a physician's practice income).(5) "Outsourcing back office functions in the healthcare industry can help lower physician claims denials, leading to reduced costs and more profitable physician practices," Philip said.
The idea of medical practices merging with healthcare systems sounds good on the surface--the objective of saving money for patients is attractive--but such savings haven't manifested. In fact, one study at
On the other hand, outsourcing gives physicians access to a staff of experienced coding and billing professionals, along with a wide range of other services. Medical practices and other healthcare organizations often find that they save time, money and resources when they use an experienced medical billing company, making it well worth the funds spent.(8)
Saving money is one of the core reasons for outsourcing, with
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Sources:
1. Kane C.K, "Updated Data on Physician Practice Arrangements: Physician Ownership Drops Below 50 Percent,"
2. Staff, Writer, "Small Primary Care Practices Shine in National Study,"
3. Amadeo, Kimberly. "See for Yourself If Obamacare Increased Health Care Costs." The Balance, The Balance,
4. Frakt,
5. Olgin, Alex. "Doctors Leaving Atrium Buck the National Trend of Groups Joining Hospitals." WFAE,
6. Medical Reimbursement Services. "How Medical Billing Mistakes Can Hurt Your Practice." Medical Reimbursement Services,
7. Capps, Cory, et al. "When Healthcare Providers Consolidate, Medical Bills Rise." Kellogg Insight, 2017, Web.
8.
9. "How Medical Coding Mistakes Affect Your Revenue?" Latest Updates on Medical Billing--MedicalBillersandCoders.com,
10. Hambardiker, Pratik. "Benefits Of Outsourcing To India Your Boss Wants To Know." Outsourcing Insight, Outsourcing Insight,
Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/outsourcing_back_office_operations_improves_medical_practice_bottom_line_and_patient_care/prweb15749069.htm
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