Healthcare providers and medical coders and billers would surely be familiar with the mandate by the HHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) to substitute the ICD-9-CM code sets with the ICD-10 ones starting October 1st 2013. This is a challenging transition and one that cannot be overlooked in medical coding and billing procedures.

More about ICD-10

The tenth amendment of the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) was sanctioned by the 43rd World Health Assembly in 1990. The ICD is the global diagnostic classification standard for general epidemiological, clinical and a lot of health management uses. WHO (World Health Organization) member states adopted the amendments in 1994. The categorization is the most recent in a sequence that originated in the 1850s. In contrast to ICD-9-CM which has only over 17, 000 codes, the ICD-10 code set has over 141, 000 codes and contains a number of new procedures and diagnoses. ICD-10 contains in:

Volume 1

• Tabular lists that include codes and titles for cause-of-death (Volume 1)
• Exclusion and inclusion terms for cause-of-death titles

Volume 2

• Guidelines, descriptions and coding resources

Volume 3

• An alphabetical index for table of drugs and chemicals, external causes of injury, and diseases and nature of injury

Choose an Up-to-date and Capable Company to Outsource To

You may read online about a lot of medical coding companies that you can possibly outsource to. However, it would be a smart idea to prefer a company that has the resources to make the changeover to ICD-10 by the deadline set by the HHS. This is in addition to the other requisites of a medical billing and coding company such as AAPC certification, HIPAA compliance, cost-effective solutions, superior quality assurance, ensured faster reimbursement and fewer denials, adherence to specified turnaround, and preferably a free trial option.

Physicians are indeed experts at treating their patients. However, when it comes to getting payment for their services, problems arise. Many claims are denied by insurance payers. One of the reasons for this is errors in medical coding and billing. Accuracy in this aspect can be achieved if you outsource to expert providers of physician billing services.

Other Reasons Why You Should Outsource this Process

Here are other credible reasons why you should outsource physician medical billing:

• You Have More Time to Focus on Your Chief Area of Expertise – Your main concern is practicing medicine, and the best interests of your patients. You get more time for that when you entrust the billing process to reliable experts who are willing to handle the complete process of revenue cycle management for you.

• Scalable Solutions for Single or Multiple Locations – The billing solutions made available to you will advance as your business progresses whether you have a single, two, or multiple locations.

• You Can Benefit from More and Better Resources – Whatever be the size of your practice, you may find it difficult to maintain human resources and be up-to-date with systems and billing. Outsourcing companies are up-to-date, use more powerful systems, and have more experienced staff.

• Cost-effectiveness – You’re spending a lot when you carry out medical billing in-house. There are expenses for training, maintenance, support fees and software. When you outsource, you can experience savings of up to 40 percent.

• Superior Performance – Outsourcing companies can help to limit denial rates, misadjudicated and unadjudicated claims.

• Reliable Reports – Reports would be provided to you in daily, weekly, or monthly intervals as per your convenience.

So make optimum use of physician billing services and ensure enhanced workflow and improved productivity of your practice.

Outsource and Get the Benefits of Medical Billing and Medical Coding

Outsourcing is a smart way to get the benefits of medical billing and medical coding. Providers of medical billing and coding outsourcing services efficiently carry out processes such as insurance verification, CPT & ICD-9 coding, claims submission, denial management, payment posting, reporting, charge entry, A/R follow-up, accessing of patient charts, and quality checks.

Medical Billing and Coding for Different Medical Specialties

Outsourcing can be done for a variety of medical specialties including internal medicine, chiropractic, gastroenterology, emergency room, endocrinology, pediatric nephrology, cardiology, radiology, rheumatology, and psychiatry. Some of the benefits of medical billing and medical coding are given below:

• Makes billing and collection faster.
• The time otherwise required for research and training can be used for some more useful purpose.
• Cut down of operational time.
• Cut down of unnecessary expenses.
• Revenue increases.

Relieve Yourself of Insurance Company Headaches

The truth is that insurance companies can be a real headache. They refuse claims for the most trivial reasons making things really difficult for busy medical practices. Outsource to the right HIPAA compliant, reliable service provider and get the benefits of medical billing and medical coding.

Technorati Tags: medical billing, medical coding, medical billing and coding, medical billing outsourcing