However,In House or Outsourced Medical Billing – Which Model Is Right For Your Practice? Articles if you are a medical practice and not sure which system will work best for you, this article will help you understand both of them in-depth and make an informed decision.

In House Medical Billing

Pros

More Oversight of Day-to-Day Operations

Having an in-house billing department provides you with direct control and oversight over the financial operations and processes. You can physically reach your staff at any time and get quick feedback on any queries. Plus, in-house staff will also implement any instructions you pass on right away. Strict in-person oversight of your finances will lead to greater transparency in your operations.

In-house billing is a suitable option for if you are reluctant to relinquish control of your billing processes to a third party.

Flexibility

When you have a dedicated in-house billing team, you can make your own rules. Contrarily, when you outsource a third-party billing company, you will be locked by rules in line with the contract you will sign off with them.

High ROI

Since you manage every little billing process of your practice on your own, it would be easy for you to keep your cost under check. Needless to say, greater cost control will maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Cons

Higher Costs

The costs for in-house medical billing is certainly too high than outsourced billing because you will have to spend money on recruitment, infrastructure and software etc.

Liabilities

Liabilities are likely to increase when you have an in-house team to manage your business processes, particularly your billers aren’t aware of the repercussions of HIPPA privacy and PHI security violations. You will have to ensure that your billers are not discarding any superbills or ignoring encounter forms to minimize the possibility of claim rejection.

When your billing operations are outsourced, liabilities on your side will be lesser.

Support Issues

Another key issue for having an in-house medical billing team is supporting. If you operate a small practice, you have to rely on one or two billers to manage your billing operations. As your practice grows, you will need more resources to manage a bigger client base.

Additionally, when even one of your billers gets sick, goes on vacation, or quits the job, the cash flow of your practice can be stalled, which will seriously affect your profitability.

Outsourced billers, on the other hand, are contractually obliged to ensure consistency in the billing operations all year round.

Outsourced Medical Billing

Pros

Accuracy

Most of the medical billing service providers have extensive experience and experts who receive constant training to stay on top of current medical coding requirements and advancements within the industry.

They handle hundreds of claims on a regular basis and know exactly what it takes to get the payment done seamlessly.

On the other hand, when you decide to go with in-house billing team, the first challenge will be to find and recruit qualified individuals.

Another flipside of in-house billing is that if the size of the team is small, the likelihood of errors will be high.

Since outsourced billing providers have a bigger team, they can handle a wide variety of medical claims and ensure an optimum level of accuracy.

Productivity

Medical practice practitioners are busy in taking care of their patients; they don’t have time to recruit, train, and manage an in-house staff and monitor track their billing operations.

Outsourcing your billing to a third-party Medical Billing frees up time and resources for you and enables you to spend more time with your patients and work towards achieving your professional goals.

Reduced Office Management Costs

Outsourcing billing operations to a third-party helps medical practices save the expenses of in-house start-up costs, staff salaries and benefits, software and equipment.

The standard billing rates of outsourced billing companies are much more affordable than the in-house setup. Most of the medical companies offer a flexible pricing structure and usually charge only a very small percentage (usually between 5-10 per cent) of the total revenue of your practice.

Since medical billing companies know that they will get paid when you get paid, they work with extreme dedication and diligence to ensure that you earn maximum reimbursements.