Collection can be tedious. It can get more difficult if there are complex billing rules and follow strict deadlines. In addition, healthcare and insurance companies try to delay or avoid paying the bills. With all these difficulties, it becomes more vital to assess the medical billing process and collections to determine which outsource company can provide a good medical billing service.  Here are some measurement metrics to help determine an effective medical billing service.

The gross collection ratio is the total amount paid divided by the total charges billed. You should compare this to other ratios that conduct similar practices to yours. The net collection is similar except that the amounts are after write-offs. A good performing service will demonstrate ratios over 90%. The elapsed time between billing and collection is vital in evaluating the efficiency of a good billing service. You should have a standard elapsed time for normal cases and another for medical specialties. This can help you identify if the billing service does timely follow-ups with the payer and expeditious remediation of any outstanding issues. Related to this is the percent of bills past due. Generally, bills are not paid at the same time. Payment on some bills may take longer than others. A good billing service should be monitoring and reporting the percent of accounts that are past due on certain milestones, like 60, 90 and 120 days past due. You should give careful consideration to the number of days before a bill is paid since this will establish the amount of financial resources you will need to maintain your business while awaiting replenishment from the payments.  The patient liability is roughly equal to the patient deductibles and is used to track the effectiveness of the doctor’s office. The first pass pay rate indicates the percentage of filed claims that are paid without any need of follow-up. A high percentage means an efficient medical billing service. On the other hand, denial rates will tell you about the claims that needed follow-ups after a given period.  The first pass pay rate and denial rates metrics go hand in hand and should be monitored diligently.

Who can use this Service?

Any business of any type and size can benefit from direct mailing by outsourcing to an online company! If you own a local business and would like to drum up some more customers in the area, go ahead and send out a mailing to all the addresses within 30 miles of your store or service center. If you’re having a special event for your current customers, use the same online mailing service to design a flyer for your current customers only. It’s totally up to you!

How do I Utilize this Service?

First, find an online company who specializes in customized printing and mailing. They’ll either have you design a flyer or post card using templates that are available on their website, or they’ll allow you to design your own material through a specified program and upload it to the website. That’s the most time consuming (and also the most fun!) part of the job. Along with your design, you’ll need to specify how many fliers need to be printed, provide a list of recipients and addresses, and set the date for your fliers to be mailed out. The online printing and mailing company will complete the project and notify you via email when your fliers are sent out.

Gone are the days of having to design, print and send out your own company mailings. Now you can outsource the work to an online company while you attend to other important aspects of your business.