Dermatology Billing Services
Dermatology billing is well understood by ClaimCare Medical Billing Services. Our understanding and expertise in this complicated field can save your practice a considerable amount of lost revenue. Medical practices lose money every single day (often over 20 percent of their realizable income) because they are not utilizing medical billing specialists, technologies, processes and management that can compete with insurance companies.
Outsourcing medical billing is growing in popularity as a method for addressing this remarkable loss of practice income. The range of outsourcing options runs from exceedingly large organizations to individual freelancers working from home to provide medical billing services.
In thinking through the billing options available, it is essential to understand that medical billing is complicated and requires deep expertise and expansive experience. When a specialty is involved, such as dermatology, the requirements for dermatology billing success become even harder to obtain. Success requires that the medical billing company have a team that is knowledgeable in the complex rules utilized by insurance companies to judge dermatology medical claims.
As the cost of providing dermatology related healthcare services continues to rise, medical institutions and dermatology practices cannot afford to leave revenue uncollected by medical billing companies or freelancers that are not knowledgeable in dermatology billing. It is also important to keep in mind some billing companies may promote themselves as large dermatology billing service providers but in reality they sub-contract the dermatology billing to freelancers who work from home. Hiring such companies will lead to lost revenue because of the lack of proper process, controls, and training.
One of the major drawbacks of hiring a medical billing company that does not specialize in dermatology billing is their lack of familiarity with the procedures and the terminologies used. Even if the medical billing company serves one or two dermatologists, they will lack the depth and breadth of expertise required for successful dermatology billing. Moreover if the hired company does not specialize in billing for dermatologists, then they will not have the expertise to effectively appeal denied claims or answer questions raised by the insurance companies. Dermatology's issues around bundling, medical necessity and global periods are particularly problematic for those without dermatology billing expertise.
A company that does not encompass a wide range of dermatology billing experience will find it difficult to track underpayments since dermatology procedures have significantly more complicated contractual adjustments than a typical family doctor or internist's claims. In addition, the billing software and system design of many billing companies will often be insufficient for the more complicated requirements of reporting and insurance follow-up required in billing for dermatology practices.
It is not only insurance billing that is more complicated for dermatologists; patient billing is also more difficult. The patients often have high balances, complicated explanations from their payers and do not understand all of the invoices they are receiving from their dermatologists. A billing company that has strong dermatology billing experience has spoken with patient about such statements many times before. A less skilled patient collection effort could leave the dermatologist with less money and unhappy patients.
The bottom-line: It is not worth the risk for a dermatologist to use a billing company that does not focus on dermatology billing.
To learn more about how ClaimCare Medical Billing Services can help your dermatology practice please fill out the form to the left or contact a local ClaimCare office.