You have invested in cutting edge medical billing technology. You brought in a high priced expert to make sure the system was implemented correctly. This should start the money flowing in, unless you have a group of mediocre medical billers. You need a world class medical billing team. Putting such a team in place requires four components:
1) Deploy a systematic approach to and dedicated resources for obtaining and developing strong employees:
Medical billing is a critical function and the process for finding and selecting medical billing employees must reflect the criticality of the job. You would not hire an accountant or an attorney based upon a few questions about what they liked or did not like about previous jobs, you should not hire medical billers with any less rigorous a process. Install multiple interviews and multiple testing levels. Test for billing knowledge, work style and work effort. Check references and check criminal history.
The leading billing organizations train to develop desired quality. Junior staff members must pass demanding training programs-junior team members are developed into billers, capable of following the measured and monitored billing process. In addition, staff is trained throughout the year in latest payer rules, follow-up techniques and compliance guidelines. A dedicated Compliance Officer is responsible for all additional HIPAA and OIG training.
If you do not remove weak performers from your team they will demoralize the entire group and will bring most people down to their level of performance. It is. Unfortunately true, that on bad apple can spoil the bunch. Each year remove the weakest members of the team based upon clear performance metrics.
2) Specialize the billing team: The top billing organizations' billing team is composed of dedicated specialists in demographic data entry, charge posting, payment posting, insurance follow up, and patient collections. Each position is designed to excel in its role and is properly supervised and incentivized.
3) Provide the staff with solid analytics support: Besides providing the clients with continuous practice analytics focused on clients' practice improvements (coding, contracting, profitability, marketing, etc) , the leading billing organizations' Analytics Group should offer strong analytics support to the billing staff. The Analytics Group should trend and measure payers response times, rejection trends, payment rates, and other key performance indicators in order to properly focus the billing staff's efforts. They should also measure various elements of the internal billing process for continuous improvements.
4) Motivate your billing team: Utilize an OIG approved compensation system for the billing team. Aligning their interest with those of the practice is a huge source of billing improvement.
Utilizing these concepts will allow you to assemble and grow a medical billing team that will be capable of utilizing a great medical billing process to deliver powerful results.
Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II - 15246
1) Deploy a systematic approach to and dedicated resources for obtaining and developing strong employees:
Medical billing is a critical function and the process for finding and selecting medical billing employees must reflect the criticality of the job. You would not hire an accountant or an attorney based upon a few questions about what they liked or did not like about previous jobs, you should not hire medical billers with any less rigorous a process. Install multiple interviews and multiple testing levels. Test for billing knowledge, work style and work effort. Check references and check criminal history.
The leading billing organizations train to develop desired quality. Junior staff members must pass demanding training programs-junior team members are developed into billers, capable of following the measured and monitored billing process. In addition, staff is trained throughout the year in latest payer rules, follow-up techniques and compliance guidelines. A dedicated Compliance Officer is responsible for all additional HIPAA and OIG training.
If you do not remove weak performers from your team they will demoralize the entire group and will bring most people down to their level of performance. It is. Unfortunately true, that on bad apple can spoil the bunch. Each year remove the weakest members of the team based upon clear performance metrics.
2) Specialize the billing team: The top billing organizations' billing team is composed of dedicated specialists in demographic data entry, charge posting, payment posting, insurance follow up, and patient collections. Each position is designed to excel in its role and is properly supervised and incentivized.
3) Provide the staff with solid analytics support: Besides providing the clients with continuous practice analytics focused on clients' practice improvements (coding, contracting, profitability, marketing, etc) , the leading billing organizations' Analytics Group should offer strong analytics support to the billing staff. The Analytics Group should trend and measure payers response times, rejection trends, payment rates, and other key performance indicators in order to properly focus the billing staff's efforts. They should also measure various elements of the internal billing process for continuous improvements.
4) Motivate your billing team: Utilize an OIG approved compensation system for the billing team. Aligning their interest with those of the practice is a huge source of billing improvement.
Utilizing these concepts will allow you to assemble and grow a medical billing team that will be capable of utilizing a great medical billing process to deliver powerful results.
Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II - 15246
About the Author:
Carl Mays II is an expert in medical billing and medical practice management. He has been working with clients acrossthe United States for more than 16 years. Carl is founder of ClaimCare Medical Billing Services. Read more about the medical billing industry at Carl's medical billing services Blog.
