Choosing anesthesia billing companies to handle coding, billing, provider credentialing, and revenue cycle management for your practice is a wise choice because you can lower costs, increase efficiency, improve patient service, reduce claim denial rates, boost revenue, reduce overhead, and avoid penalties from not complying with regulations.
With all the different providers out there, selecting among the anesthesia billing and provider credentialing companies in the market can be difficult. You want a provider who can be relied upon to provide exemplary service so that you can focus on your practice.
What qualities should you look for in billing providers? What are the indicators for success for a new relationship with a third-party vendor?
Choose a Comprehensive Provider
There are many aspects to revenue cycle management for an anesthesia practice. From coding to billing, claims processing, patient communication, collections, and more, the number of moving parts in a practice’s system can be overwhelming – as can hiring a provider for each specific part.
Instead of outsourcing to a slew of vendors, it makes more sense to choose one provider who can offer a comprehensive solution incorporating all the necessary components of a revenue management system. This creates greater synergy and efficiency, and also gives you just one point of contact instead of several.
Go with Specialty Services
When it comes to billing, you generally have two options: general contractors or specialized contractors.
For an anesthesia practice, it’s better to go with specialists who know the ins and outs of billing, coding, and filing for anesthesia providers. This is because there are many regulations and facets to anesthesia billing and coding that other practice areas do not have to consider – and having a generalist do the work for you could mean you’ll miss out on valuable experience in your chosen field.
For these reasons, it’s advised to find a provider who specializes in billing and coding for anesthesia practices, and has a body of work and successful track record for those practices -- not just any medical practice. Your success rate will be much higher with a specialist.
Choose Based on Reputation
The provider you choose ultimately should have a reputation for integrity, diligence, and results. You can determine if this is the case by either checking out reviews of the provider online – such as through business directories, Facebook, Google, etc. – or by asking for references from clients.
Either option will give you a good idea of what you can expect during a working relationship with your third-party provider. Anesthesia billing companies should be willing to share with you the results of their previous relationships, and should have no problem allowing you access to references.
Reputation is important. The number of providers out there necessitates narrowing down the list based on reputation and only finding partners who have reputations for excellence.
Following these tips can help your practice find the right anesthesia billing companies to cut costs, boost revenue, reduce claim denial rates, and improve the running of your practice.
