As with any business, revenue cycle management is critical for healthcare providers. With new rules and regulations impacting their bottom line, physicians are under stress to increase revenue and cut costs while providing high quality patient care. According to a recent report published by Becker’s Hospital Review, these developments are expected to work in favour of the global medical billing services outsourcing market. The study, which was conducted by Transparency Market Research, predicts that the global medical billing outsourcing market will witness a high single digit growth rate over the period of 2016-2023. The findings on the worldwide medical billing outsourcing market are as follows:
- The increasing emphasis on compliance and risk management and the need for efficient processes is a major factor driving the growth of medical billing outsourcing. Healthcare providers are partnering with professional medical billing and coding companies to implement compliance programs. This involves ensuring accuracy in coding and billing with proper documentation of medical records, precise application of billing codes, and proper claim submission processes.
- Another major factor that has impacted the global medical billing services market is the cost benefits that outsourcing offers. Specifically, the report says that the market will see an influx of small and mid-sized healthcare businesses looking to reduce their workload, office space, and overall costs.
Outsourced billing is a good option for physicians’ practices that do not want to manage an administrative team. Professional healthcare outsourcing companies handle all the day-to-day billing functions off-site. A reputable medical billing company would have a team of well-trained certified billers well-versed in the nuances of billing, insurers’ rules, and claim submission. Smaller practices benefit greatly from the arrangement as they would not have to invest in costly specialized medical billing tools and technologies. Established companies provide medical billing and coding services at competitive rates, helping their clients save expenses and generate more revenues. - The report points out that the growing elderly population along with increased healthcare expenditure and complex modern healthcare infrastructure in developed economies of North America and Europe is giving rise to the need for cost-effective solutions. Outsourcing medical billing and other administrative functions has proved an effective strategy to reduce costs.
- The market research report also identifies the restraints facing the global medical billing outsourcing market, which include the constantly changing regulatory structure across regions and the steady rate of data migration problems. Vendors need to stay responsive to the changes in various countries and this poses a major challenge when it comes to providing standard services for their clients.
- Another key aspect which could constrain the growth of this outsourcing market is the trust that organizations place on the medical billing company.
The report notes “The amount of trust that each company needs to place on vendors is exceptionally high and therefore any breach of contract can lead to severe consequences for the vendor, while also reduces the trust level that client companies show in the future”.
Outsourcing to a reliable HIPAA-compliant service provider that is sensitive to the confidentiality of personal health information can avoid any breach of contract and security issues.