Should You Hire a Medical Office Consultant for ENT Practices?
One of the most time consuming and essential elements of running a successful ENT practice is medical account management. Between insurance verification, preparing for the impending ICD-10 deadline and focusing on doing accurate and quick otolaryngology billing and coding, it can all be overwhelming. Some offices just work smoothly with everyone playing their part in the daily activities, taking care of what needs to be done and preparing for the new changes and issues coming ahead in the world of healthcare management. Unfortunately, not every office functions this well and some need the assistance of a medical office consultant.
What is a Medical Office Consultant?
The first thing you need to know about hiring a consultant to help your ENT practice with medical account management and other types of coding and billing is what this type of professional can do for you. A medical office consultant is a licensed, experienced and trained person who can bring a wealth of knowledge or provide services that will help you to figure out what isn’t working and provide you with solutions that will get you back on track. It is important to work with a consultant who specializes in otolaryngology billing and coding, as the issues and focus of Ear Nose and Throat medicine is very specialized and has its own unique requirements.
A consultant can help you find ways to improve your in-house medical account management, help you to increase your abilities through time management, software upgrades, training or even outsourcing your billing and coding while you get things in order. They can help you find ways to make improvements that will make your office more effective and efficient, giving you more time to work with patients and follow up on other healthcare industry changes that are coming in the weeks and months ahead. Training your staff to handle the new coding changes with the ICD-10 deadline is also an option, especially for offices that didn’t take time to prepare.
A professional medical office consultant can help make sure that you are compliant, that your human resources department is doing its job, that your revenue is coming in on a timely schedule and that everything is up to date. There are lots of reasons why ENT practices hire an outside consultant to come in and help them to evaluate their in-house medical account management. The rest of this article will describe a couple of scenarios where this type of support for otolaryngology billing and coding, office management and other essential duties and tasks, can be most effective.
Brand New ENT Practices
There are so many things that need to be done when you open up a brand new practice. It is a good idea to hire a medical account management consultant before and during your opening to ensure that your staff is properly prepared to take on all of the otolaryngology billing and coding, insurance verification and claims submissions required to start bringing in some cash flow to your office. For those who have not yet been trained, services that will help prepare experienced medical billing staff for the ICD-10 deadline changes can also be provided. Other types of education, which can help to streamline duties and submissions, can also be offered through the professional consultant.
Cash Flow Problems
If you have a lot of patients, but aren’t getting enough income coming in through your current medical billing practices, it is time to bring in a consultant. A professional medical office consultant can take an in-depth look at current medical account management procedures and policies to discover ways to make improvements. Help with insurance verification, billing and coding software, training, auditing, collections and other essential areas, will help to get your office back on track and get the money flowing. A complete financial analysis will be conducted to determine what you need to do to get your financials back on track. Sometimes it is due to time management, especially in a busy practice where nurses and other medical staff are also responsible for otolaryngology billing and coding or in a situation where coding mistakes and other issues are occurring. Whatever the cause is, a professional consultant can help you find a viable solution.
In-House Issues With Staff
If you already know that you have a problem with your medical account management team, a professional consultant can help you decide whether training and education would be helpful, or if you need to make a staffing change. In most cases, proper training and support can make a world of difference, helping your billing department to take control over billing, coding, collections, insurance verification and anything else that you need to have done. Some staff members may just need to be motivated, while others may just need to update their training. With all of the recent changes that have happened in the healthcare industry, such as the ICD-10 deadline changes and other office related requirements, your staff needs professional support to ensure that they are maximizing their abilities and doing everything according to the new regulations.
Do You Need a Medical Office Consultant?
If you think you could benefit from hiring a professional to help you with medical account management for otolaryngology billing and coding – or if you still aren’t ready for the ICD-10 deadline – contact MD Pro Solutions. Our team of highly trained, experienced and effective medical office consultants can help get your office working at its full potential for the best possible results. Call us today at 508-946-1665 for more information or for a FREE estimate of our services.