Typically, you have two ways of handling your private practice billing and collections: hire someone to do it full-time in house or outsource to a professional PT billing service. In the pursuit of keeping expenses low and profits high, you might be surprised at which route typically saves your practice the most time and money.
Managing billing services in-house often becomes a more costly endeavor when staffing, training, and other expenditures come into play. After years of working with private practice owners from startups to expanding clinics, the resounding conclusion is that the best option is to outsource your physical therapy practice’s billing services. Let’s take a look at why.
The Investment That Goes Into a PT Biller or Billing Service
An outside billing service wins out against in-house billing services for most physical therapy offices for a few reasons. One key reason is that an in-house biller will likely be someone doing this work alongside additional duties, unless you hire and allocate for a dedicated biller/clerk role. Furthermore, you’ll also need to allocate resources to ensure that the in-house biller is up-to-date on all payer regulations and rules.
The biggest mistake a new practice can make is hiring an amateur billing clerk that has multiple administrative roles as well. This complex job requires focus and expertise as well as professional standards of billing education and training.
These things are factored in when it comes to an outside billing service with multiple levels of auditing and quality control measures. Depending on the physical therapy billing services provider, they can manage the different needs based on your clinic’s exact situation with dedicated teams and managers.
Save Time and Effort with Outsourced Physical Therapy Billing
In-house billing services can also be incredibly time-consuming. Chasing insurance payments and managing disputes can quickly produce some wear and tear on a small team of in-house billers. In contrast, dedicated staff at an outsourced billing service for private practices are trained to handle these situations on your behalf, and they have the resources to follow up and resolve denials and receive payments and reimbursements.
Avoid having your physical therapy practice bogged down in red tape when it comes to billing by outsourcing it to those specially equipped to handle it.
Key Performance Indicators for Physical Therapy Billing Success
When it comes time to determine the best option between in-house billing services and outsourcing your physical therapy billing, the two most significant performance indicators are money saved and the return on investment.
An in-house billing service will need funding, training and up-to-date literature and resources – which can add up. Conservatively, you may be looking at a salary of over $40,000 per employee to handle such services, with Payscale.com suggesting $61,000 as the industry average. Now, consider the amount of billing paperwork that your business must do. That’s likely too much for a single employee, even with a small physical therapy business. These costs only add up.
As far as a return on investment goes, working with an outside billing service can be significantly cheaper. Plus, it can make you more money. By balancing error-free performance with deep knowledge of the industry and insurance providers, professional billing services can increase your reimbursement amount per claim. Additionally, this results in less stress and time spent away from patients, which is a significant benefit in and of itself to you and your staff.
Ready to Maximize Your Revenue with an Expert Billing Team?
If you are interested in moving to an outsourced billing service, consider learning more about how MEG Business Billing Services can help.
Take our 2-minute Billing Stress Test to reveal any billing struggles and see if you’re missing out on opportunities. Download our Billing Toolkit to see which resources can help you transition to a high-performing billing and collections team.
