Home | Finance | Insurance

Medical Billing and Coding - Choosing the Perfect Pricing Alternative

By: Aeronx Mc Mall

Read More About Insurance

Medical billing services offer multiple options for clients to pay for their services. Every practice has diverse needs and the right selection for you depends on the volume, kind, and value of claims. Following is a list of the billing options offered to health care practices, with their advantages and disadvantages.

1. Percentage based fee

This is the most frequent kind of billing option offered by medical billing services. You pay a proportion of the net amount received or of the total claims submitted to the covering agency. Percentage rates range widely (4%-16%) as they depend on the type of services provided, claim value and monthly average number of claims. Percentage based contracts fit most healthcare practices, especially if the medical billing service manages all the jobs connected to billing. This method of billing provides motivation to the billing service to submit and follow up claims rigorously - an excellent benefit for the customer. The one drawback of percentage based pricing is that the billing service may pay less attention to smaller claims as the small sums do not justify the vigorous follow up required to collect. A good choice is to pay a marginally higher percentage for the smaller claims to motivate the service to collect on them.

2. Flat fee per claim

You pay a flat rate for each filed claim. The charge could range from $1 to $8 based on the service. This option works well for health care practices that process low volume of claims with high payment amounts or claims that are tough to collect (as from a particular payer). The disadvantage of this agreement is that the billing service is not motivated to pursue the claims aggressively. You should accept this alternative only if you demand follow up in the contract and make the payment after the claim has been collected.

3. Hybrid Billing

Hybrid billing is a great option to get the best of both percentage and flat fee service. In a hybrid contract, pricing terms are defined based on the kind of claim and the insurance carriers. This kind of billing arrangement is suitable for any practice that has a wide range of claim values and a moderate to high level of claims. This also helps health care practices conform to the flat fee rules set for Medicaid and Medicare claims in a few states. The percentage-based fee is used to pay for private insurance claims. The main drawback of hybrid billing is that it introduces billing complexity into practices that do not have a large volume of claims.

Before selecting the billing option you want with the medical billing service, assess your claims volume, value of claims, and the kind of payers. Ask the billing service to forecast results based on monthly average volume of claims, amount of claims and payers so that you can estimate what you would pay under each kind of billing agreement. Consider the future growth of your practice before selecting the optimal payment contract. There is a perfect medical biller for every kind of practice; you just need to spend some time understanding how they work before you make your selection.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Daljeet Sidhu. Medical Billing Services blog. Medical Billing quote. Buy Business leads.

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Insurance Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Finance | Insurance
Sign Up for a free account.
Our other websites
All about SEO
Beauty Tips Forum
Submit Articles
Member Login
Link Us
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Sitemap
New Stuff
About Us
Developer
Good shopping portal
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

counter easy hit

Powered by Article Dashboard