When Should Your Practice Hire a Healthcare Consulting Firm?
In most situations, our instincts tell us when it is time to do something. When the leaves begin to fall and the weather turns cool, we know that it is time to get out the warm coats and sweaters. When a car begins to consume more gas than it used to, we know that it is time to get a tune-up. For most things in life, there are signs and symptoms that help guide us to making a smart decision. The same holds true with billing and coding management at your ENT practice or clinic. There are certain signs that you can look for that will let you know when it is time to contract a healthcare consulting firm to help you improve your system so you will have fast and accurate credentialing and proper Medicare reimbursement.
While the main focus of the healthcare industry is to provide comprehensive care to patients through various medical practices, clinics and hospitals, there are other sides to the business of healthcare that must be considered. Beyond the diagnosis and treatment of the various diseases, conditions and injuries that present themselves on a daily basis, your medical practice or clinic must be prepared to properly bill and code the medical procedures that were provided in order to improve revenue and profitability, just like any other business. Because most physicians are more concerned with helping patients than billing and coding management, it is important to hire someone who will look out for the bottom line.
What Services Are Provided By a Healthcare Consulting Firm?
Healthcare consulting helps medical clinics and practices evaluate the current billing and coding management of the facility to ensure that the staff is properly trained in the administration end of bookkeeping, Medicare reimbursement and they can even help with the marketing of the practice to the public. These services are provided to fine-tune the medical billing and coding management of your practice or clinic to ensure that nothing is being overlooked.
Hiring a healthcare consulting firm can be a great way for practices to take the temperature of their current system, make sure that staff are providing fast and accurate credentialing, staying on top of billing and collections, as well as taking care of patient files and overall office management. MD Pro Solutions works with ENT practice physicians and administrators to provide comprehensive account management, auditing and reviews, credentialing services, as well as reporting and communications.
Some of the educational services provided by MD Pro Solutions include:
- ICD-10 education and training
- testing, training and screening
- online testing and training
- patient financial policy education
- policy manual development
- online coding help with ICD-9 and ICD-10 cross-links
- online coding help for CPT with RVU global days and CCI edits
- maximizing earnings while working to prevent inaccuracies and fraud
Some of the Signs That You Need to Hire a Consultant
While not every practice will need the help of a healthcare consulting firm to improve their billing and coding management, there are certain situations and times within the growth of a medical practice or clinic where even temporary assistance is needed. Here is a list of some of the signs and situations where your practice could benefit from hiring a professional healthcare consulting firm.
- SPECIAL PROJECTS – If you are working on major projects or upgrades to your system, including ICD-10 changes, a healthcare consulting firm can help. In these situations you will likely need additional staff to ensure that the project gets done without neglecting the daily work to ensure fast and accurate credentialing. This can include upgrading software, installing hardware and making other changes to improve Medicare reimbursement.
- STAFF TRAINING – While your staff is being trained, you will likely need some assistance for billing and administration. A healthcare consulting firm like MD Pro Solutions can help by providing the training and testing, while also working to help you keep things running in your practice during the training period.
- BEHIND ON COLLECTIONS – If your practice of clinic is behind on collecting payments from patients or has extensive delays in processing insurance provider and Medicare reimbursement claims, you could benefit from the help of a healthcare consulting firm. We can help you maximize your receivables while ensuring fast and accurate credentialing for each and every account.
- TIME MANAGEMENT – If your employees are having a problem with time management, either because your billing and coding management is not very efficient or because they are just not disciplined, a healthcare consulting firm can help. We can help you get back on track, train staff when necessary and provide online or in-office support as needed.
Hiring a Healthcare Consulting Firm
When the time comes to hire a consulting service like MD Pro Solutions to improve billing and coding management, ensure fast and accurate credentialing and improve Medicare reimbursement in your clinic or medical practice, it is important to know what you are getting. With our professional services you will receive a complete review of your entire medical billing solution so we can make sure that you are maximizing all of the benefits associated with your current billing provider.
Our consultants at MD Pro Solutions will also suggest tools, education, training and support that will help your staff to streamline and boost their efforts in billing management. We can help you reduce the amount of time spent on collecting account receivables, processing claims and being worried about cash flow by implementing new practices and procedures that will increase productivity, reduce paperwork and boost morale. You can choose to keep your current software or provider without being worried that anyone will pressure you to make a change.
For more information on all of our services and healthcare consulting programs available, contact MD Pro Solutions by calling 508-946-1665 or use our online contact form.