Why Outsourcing Your DME Medical Billing is a Better Alternative in 2020

Durable Medical Equipment (DME) billing is a demanding and challenging practice. According to the Medical Group Management Association’s  poll, 71% of healthcare leaders agree that claims payment and revenue cycle issues — such as denials, prior authorization, and staffing issues — are the biggest revenue cycle challenges. 

COVID-19 has introduced DMEs and Home Medical Equipment (HMEs) to a new operating environment.  They need to manage new regulatory, financial, and operational challenges while also providing value-based care. Outsourcing DME billing makes sense for both ensuring ongoing profitability and for the reasons listed below.

• Better monitoring and control

Outsourcing your medical billing services gives you better control over your medical billing processes. The processes are well-structured and hence better monitored. Regular training and constant monitoring of dedicated outsourced billing staff allows you to deliver consistent quality. This translates into operational efficiency and cost benefits.

• Increased cash flow

Shrinking collections, billing errors, and the absence of staff are common errors faced by DMEs, which, if neglected, can spell danger for the DME providers. Setting up an in-house staff for DME billing will require you to bear the cost of hiring and training as well as providing payroll, taxes, and employee benefits, all of which will drain your cash flow. It will also require you to invest in setting up IT infrastructure, as well as ensuring its regular maintenance. This will further impact your revenue. Outsourcing DME billing eliminates the need to invest in any of these ways, and therefore reduces costs. It also gives you access to a world-class IT infrastructure, latest technology, and high level of industry talent. By outsourcing, you’ll reduce overhead and headaches, at a fraction of the cost it would take to set it up in-house.

• Superior patient experience

Managing medical billing processes often overburdens your in-house staff, making them less efficient. Outsourcing helps you create a superior patient experience and boost patient-provider relationships.  A professional team offers 24×7 complete support for patients and answers their billing-related queries effectively. With a team of dedicated medical billing experts in place, you can stay assured that your clients will receive consistently high-quality service even if the industry is undergoing changes in regulations or during a pandemic like the recent COVID-19. 

• Increased flexibility to meet regulations

Keeping up with constantly changing regulations and implementing all the guidelines for DME billing can be cumbersome for any DME provider. Outsourcing medical billing to a HIPAA compliant and ISO-certified medical billing company assures the highest standards of transparency and data security for the protection of patient health information (PHI). It helps foster a culture of compliance and reduces medical errors, increases patient satisfaction, and enhances operational efficiencies. It also helps you stay updated with the evolving regulatory landscape, since the team of professional medical billers constantly monitor industry trends.  

• Better focus on value-based care

As a growing DME, you have limited resources. While you focus on essential tasks to improve your DME business and provide value-based care outsourcing gives you access to a pool of world-class medical billing experts who ensure your operations run smoothly.

The market opportunities for DMEs are growing. With the right resources and an expert medical billing team, you can provide better value based care, build deeper relationships with patients, and increase your margins by increasing your referral base. Analytix Solutions works with DME and HME practices and businesses to identify and implement medical billing processes that can be streamlined and optimized. We offer a full range of medical billing services that can be combined to provide an end-to-end customizable solution.