Six Reasons Advanced Billing Services Are Vital to Today’s Urology Practices
Written by: Auren Weinberg M.D., M.B.A. and Cheryl Reifsnyder, PhD
In 2023, independent medical practices are facing an increasing number of financial challenges. Practices have to deal with record high expenses along with inflation and a tight labor market. Kaufman Hall’s January 2023 Physician Flash Report revealed that medical practices’ operating costs have reached their highest level in the past 6 quarters.
At the same time, changes in billing and revenue cycle procedures and regulations, such as transitions to value-based care along with complex billing regulations due to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and Meaningful Use, can make it difficult for practices to stay on top of the most recent changes and updates in payer and billing processes. Staying current with the latest medical billing guidelines and regulations can be extremely challenging—but failure to do so can result in billing errors, and even the smallest mistakes can cause claim denials.
Urology practices are no exception to these challenges. In a recent survey of independent Urology practices,1 Veradigm researchers found that 60% (29 of 48 practices surveyed) reported delays in getting paid for services provided as one of the top challenges in their clinical workflow. For 83% of Urology practices (40 of 48 surveyed), uncollected payments or denied claims resulted in some degree of cash flow problems, where “some degree” ranged from “some extent” to “very large extent” of cash flow problems.1
The combination of rising expenses and an ever-shifting regulatory environment make advanced medical billing services vital to the financial health of today’s Urology practices. Keep reading for 6 reasons advanced billing services can benefit your Urology practice.
#1. Streamlined operations
In a recent MGMA poll, 58% of medical practices reported staffing as their biggest challenge heading into 2023. With the high rate of employee turnover in healthcare, it’s more important than ever to help protect your staff from excess work stress—and one way to do this is by automating stressful, repetitive administrative tasks.
Advanced medical billing services can help to automate a wide range of time-consuming operational tasks, from scheduling appointments to processing payments. For Urology practices, this translates into greater operational efficiency, more precise resource allocation, and decreased administrative burden, freeing up the providers’ time to concentrate on their most important role: patient care.
#2. Enhanced financial health
In today’s world, it is crucial to choose a medical billing services provider that also provides robust analytics and reporting capabilities. These types of analytic tools offer insightful and actionable data, such as identifying trends in revenue, cash flow analysis, and patient payment habits. Understanding these data enable Urology practices to make data-driven decisions to enhance their financial health—such as identifying underused services, optimizing pricing strategies, and managing overhead costs more effectively.
#3. Efficient and timely claim reimbursement
Billing inaccuracies and noncompliance with insurance procedures often lead to claim denials and payment delays. Whether you have in-house billing services or outsource, it is essential to ensure accurate coding and timely claims submissions, increasing the chances of first-pass claim acceptance. Advanced medical billing services can also help you to manage and track claims in real time, which can reduce turnaround time and, as a result, improve cash flow.
The final result can lead to efficient and timely claim reimbursement for your Urology practice.
#4. Improved patient satisfaction
In this era of patient-centric care, providing a transparent and seamless financial experience is key to patient satisfaction. With the right billing services, you gain the critical functionalities such as clear and understandable billing statements, easy online patient payment options, and efficient handling of billing inquiries. Creating a smooth financial experience not only helps reduce patients’ financial stress. It also fosters patient trust and loyalty, crucial factors for the long-term success of every Urology practice.
#5. Regulatory compliance
Today’s medical practices are subject to a myriad of healthcare regulations, such as HIPAA privacy laws, Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Noncompliance can result in hefty fines and damage to the practice’s reputation, as well as creating obstacles to timely reimbursement. However, an advanced medical billing services provider helps you stay up-to-date on the latest billing and revenue cycle changes, including transitions to value-based care and complex billing regulations due to MACRA, Meaningful Use, and ICD-10 updates. This can ensure that all your practice’s financial transactions, patient data handling, and billing practices are compliant, thereby mitigating compliance-related risks.
#6. Cost savings
By automating manual processes, reducing administrative errors, and enhancing resource utilization, Veradigm’s medical billing services can help to reduce your practice’s operational costs. For example, optimizing the claims submission process enables a practice to reduce the time devoted to this task while simultaneously lowering the chance of claim denials due to errors. This saves the practice the expense associated with reprocessing and resubmitting denied claims.
Veradigm: End-to-end billing solutions
Veradigm has the tools to help you optimize your Urology practice billing cycle. Our Urology-specific Practice Management software can help you maximize operational efficiency with scheduling, collections, claims, and denials management. Its integrated medical billing system automatically verifies eligibility. The billing solution provides seamless integration with the EHR, enabling you to pull patient information directly from chart notes, streamlining creation of “superbills” while reducing double data entry and increasing accuracy. Automated, Urology-specific claims management workflows help minimize errors and increase efficiency by enabling claims review prior to submissions. Billing automation systems maximize efficiencies, helping to recover payments and reduce patient bad debt.
Over 5,000 Urology practitioners in the U.S. currently utilize Veradigm solutions.2 Click here to learn more about Veradigm’s Urology-focused solutions—or reach out today to schedule a personalized demonstration and discover how Veradigm can help you manage your medical billing needs more effectively and efficiently.
References:
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Veradigm. New Business: Urology Focus. p. 22.
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Internal Data on File, 2023.