October 7, 2016
Debunking the Myth: Outsourcing Behavioral Health Billing is Too Expensive

Debunking the Myth: Outsourcing Behavioral Health Billing is Too Expensive

Billing for addiction treatment is at the center of your business, even though caring for your patients is your top priority. Without strong processes and people that allow you to be as effective as possible, you can’t generate the income you want and need. At its simplest, outsourcing behavioral health billing results in more income for your center without needing dedicated staff for your billing and collection tasks. And in the long run, at a lower cost.

Plus, with experts handling all of your billing and collection tasks, you can eliminate the day-to-day stress that accompanies these tasks and focus on engaging with and better treating your clients.

Outsourcing behavioral health billing can eliminate financial burden

Here are a few areas where outsourcing can help reduce your costs:

Training

When outsourcing behavioral health billing, the provider becomes your expert. And they need to remain that way, meaning they cover any costs required to ensure their staff stay on top of the changes in regulations and billing. You’ll pay a small percentage of the cost as part of your fee, ensuring their associates remain up-to-date, so your employees don’t have to.

Employees

Add benefits, like health insurance and retirement, and that cost rises significantly. Multiply the cost for a single biller by the number of employees you need to support your office, and your labor cost could reach into the six or seven figures.

How much could you save, by paying a fee for service, instead of the costs associated with having these employees on your staff? Plus, by outsourcing these roles, you never need to worry about coverage for employee vacations, sick time and employee turnover.

Also, if your clinical staff is spending time fighting insurance companies to get authorization for their patients to receive treatment, they have less time for their core function—helping your patients. Outsourcing allows your clinicians and your patients to focus on the treatment process while a team of experts deals with the insurance companies.

Errors

Even the smallest mistake can cause an insurance company to reject a medical billing claim, requiring someone on your staff to correct the error, resubmit the claim and wait for the revised claim to be accepted and processed.

Perhaps your staff wear multiple hats. They’re at your front desk, admitting new clients, answering calls from prospective patients and their families and handling your billing tasks. That’s a long list, made even longer by the fact that they’re probably also answering inquiries from clients and families about the stacks of paperwork they’re receiving as a result of incorrect bills going to their insurance companies.

Outsourcing removes that task from them entirely. The outsourced addiction treatment billing company has the experience and resources to submit claims correctly the first time, avoiding the administrative headache for your staff.

Compare your in-house costs to the cost of outsourcing 

Once you add up all of your expenses, you’ll see how outsourcing is an investment that saves money in the long run. A spreadsheet, like the one below, might be all that’s between you and making the switch. Fill in the following, and you’ll see clearly how much you’re currently spending, versus what you could spending outsourcing.costs-table

Outsourcing behavioral health billing can help drive the success of your addiction treatment center

The right outsourcing behavioral health treatment center billing provider can decrease your costs by:

  • Speeding up your payment process;
  • Reducing the number of denials;
  • Freeing up your staff’s time;
  • Decreasing your overhead; and
  • Increasing your revenue.

As experts in the behavioral health billing space, we can help you see how quickly you’ll save money through outsourcing. Contact INFINITY Behavioral Health today at 866-677-5264 for more information about how moving to an outsourcing billing partner can improve the revenue cycle of your business.

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