Daljeet Sidhu offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - DistributeYourArticles (www.DistributeYourArticles.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. DistributeYourArticles does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: Medical Claims Billing - Picking the Right Fees Alternative Author: Daljeet Sidhu Category: Insurance, Receivables, Small Business Word Count: 496 Keywords: medical billing service,outsource medical billing, medical billing,billing service,medical billing and coding, medical billing business,medical claims billing,medical billing prices Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.distributeyourarticles.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
Medical billing services offer multiple alternatives to compensate them for their services. Every practice has different requirements and the appropriate option for you is based on the volume, type, and value of bills. Following are some of the billing choices available to medical offices, with their pros and cons. 1. Percentage based fee This is the most widespread kind of billing option offered by medical billing services. You pay a proportion of the net amount received or of the total claims submitted to the covering agency. Percentage rates vary from four percent to sixteen percent as they depend on the type of services provided, claim value and monthly average count of claims. Percentage based agreements work well for almost all medical practices, especially if the medical billing service administers all the jobs connected to billing . This method of billing provides an incentive to the billing service to submit and follow up claims rigorously - an excellent advantage for the customer. The only disadvantage of percentage based pricing is that the billing service tends to pay less attention to smaller claims as the small sums do not justify the aggressive follow up needed to collect. You can circumvent this obstacle by paying a somewhat higher percentage for the smaller claims to motivate the service to co llect on them. 2. Flat fee per claim You pay a fixed rate for each submitted claim. The fee can vary from $1 to $8 based on the service. This choice is appropriate for health care practices that process low volume of claims with high payment amounts or claims that are tough to collect (as from a particular payer). The drawback of this agreement is that the billing service does not have much motivation to follow up the claims aggressively. You should accept this billing preference only if you include follow up in the contract and make the payment after the claim has been collected. 3. Hybrid Billing Hybrid billing is a good option to get the best of both percentage and flat fee service. In a hybrid agreement, pricing provisos are defined based on the category of claim and the insurance carriers. This sort of billing arrangement is perfect for any hospital that sees varying claim values and a moderate to high number of claims. This also allows medical practices conform to the fixed fee rules stipulated for Medicaid and Medicare claims in many states. The percentage-based fee is used to pay for private insurance claims. The main problem of hybrid billing is that it introduces billing complexity into practices that do not have a large volume of claims. Before deciding on the billing option you want with the medical billing service, go over your billing volume, amount of claims, and the type of payers. Ask the billing company to project results based on monthly average volume of claims, amount of claims and payers so that you can estimate the amount you would pay under every type of billing contract. Think in terms of the potential growth of your practice before selecting the best possible payment contract. There is a perfect medical biller for every kind of practice; you just need to spend some time understanding how they work before you make your selection. Daljeet Sidhu. http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/buying-guides/view-buying-guide/1199/Medical+Billing+Services http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/business-resources/get-free-quotes/1199/Medical+Billing+Services http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/leads/small-business-leads ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
