Medical Billing from Home

The following question was posted today in our active Medical Billing Community forum where this question is not new to us. We get questions revolving around how to start a medical billing business from home quite often from new individuals in this field. I say new, because seasoned medical billers and their medical coding counterparts already figured out that doing medical billing from home requires certain distinct steps; however, here is where this new medical billing and coding graduate who asked is right on the mark--she, too realizes that this goal takes time. She states she hopes to achieve it within the next five years.

Re: Medical billing/coding from home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've just received my billing/coding certificate and I have a while before I even want to try to take on a home business. But I've looked everywhere and can't find any information on how to do this work from home. Can anyone give me steps to how to begin this process? Do I go to the provider and ask to be hired but say I want to work from home? Or ... I'm just so confused with all this. ANY help would be nice. I want to start preparing myself for the years to come, because doing this from home is one of my short term (within 5 years) goals.

Danni R. responds:
« Reply #1 on: Today at 08:14:51 PM »


We have discussed this topic a few times, here at the forum. For most who eventually started their own medical billing business from a home office it was not something that happened overnight. They have been in the field as an employee with trusted employer relationships for years, and have made contacts with doctors and clinics who have earned their trust. This would be the point where one could say: "Doctor So-and-so, I am looking for opportunities to do this job from my home office. Would you allow me to take some of your billing home."

So, in a nutshell, your education counts, experience counts, employee relationships count, and trust and references count. Then, when you have all this under your belt make sure your resume is updated and shines, also make sure you have researched and know local and state laws as to what is required via city ordincane and zoning, and such, to run a home business. Find out how to incorporate your business. Although you could "freelance" it, an LLC provides you with a certain amount of protection.

May be our Steve can add a couple more tips. In the meantime, try our forum's search function for older discussions around this topic. Good luck.

Managing the Medical Office in Tough Economic Times

7 Tips on How to Manage the Medical Office in Tough Economic Times

Author:
 Gen Wright

One of the most commonly mentioned advice for coping with tough economic times, is to cut costs. There are many different ways you can cut costs for your businesses. So where do you start? Office management seems to be a good place to start. You can make some changes easily and quickly because you have full control over how you want to run your office.

For example, if you are running a medical practice, now may be a good time to start looking at medical office software to help manage the office more efficiently and more effectively. Consider the functions that a great piece of medical practice software can perform for you:

1 - Check patient eligibility with insurance company to make sure the patient is covered for insurance.

This is a repetitive task that may be taking up too much of your employee\'s time. Have the software do this for you.

2 - Check patient balance when they are calling for an appointment and remind them of any outstanding balance and ask them to bring a check or credit card with them to appointment to pay.

This is an important aspect of the business. The software will help generate healthier revenues from the more efficient payment collection processes.

3 - Collect patient deductible and co insurance at time of service. Offer different payment options.

With the software, you can offer different payment options. Deductible is the amount payable by the patient and cannot be claimed from the insurance company. The software helps to track that to ensure prompt collection.

3 - Followup on all insurance denials or rejections, don\'t let the insurance companies cheat you out of revenue.

Many practices simply give up on insurance claims because they find it too tedious to track the claims. The practice thus ends up losing money. With the software in place, a practice doesn\'t have to lose money due to rejections or denials anymore. Simply follow up with the claims, correct the problems, and rake in the cash.

4 - Schedule efficiently to fill up your schedule efficiently.

Your practice depends on your patient appointments for revenue. So it\'s important to have powerful software that will manage all your appointments for you.

5 - Doctors, be sure to submit info to office staff for hospital and nursing home visits and rounds.

Doctors, being busy and heavily stressed professionals, sometimes forget to submit info for office staff. They can now submit the info through the software.

6 - Immediately bill any claim to patient if insurance company denies.

Sometimes, you may have legitimate denials from insurance companies. Have your software bill patients immediately if an insurance claim fails (e.g. insurance policy expired).

7 - Send patient statements at least monthly - hire a temp if your staff complains about not having time to print, and stuff and stamp the statements. Consider an electronic statement service. For about the cost of stationery, envelopes, and stamp, a service can serve this crucial function.

Monthly billing statements take up a lot of time and the work is not just repetitive but also builds up over time. With a medical practice management software program, you can hire a temp staff to perform such tasks and free up the time of your full time staff. In the long run, you will be saving more money due to better use of your staff\'s time, and declining staff turnover.


Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ask-an-expert-articles/7-tips-on-how-to-manage-the-medical-office-in-tough-economic-times-718685.html


About the Author
For more information on medical practice management software or electronic medical billing software, please visit our website.

Medical Billing Done From Home - HIPAA and CMS

Ever changing and new federal laws, such as HIPAA, and those regarding electronic claims submission make it a bit more difficult to take medical billing work home. However, many have overcome these unique challenges as they arise, and are following their dream working in a career they absolutely love.

What About HIPAA Rules?
As long as certain safeguards are in place, and there is a data backup plan, disaster recovery plan, and emergency mode operation plan, HIPAA has no objections to medical coding and billing staff working from home. Another important consideration in the medical coding and medical billing realm concern CMS (previously HCFA) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding healthcare provider's in-house compliance plan.

Clients Who Default on Payment for Medical Billing Services

Clients that won't pay...


Here is a situation medical billing freelancers, business owners, and consultants will likely encounter sooner or later: defaulting clients.

How can you protect yourself and the business?

Here are a few tips:

1.) charge a retainer
- a retainer gives you part of the money up-front, and keeps the client involved

2.) mile-stone payments (at commencement - mid-way - completion)
- even if the client defaults at the very end, at least you have most of your money

3.) never hand files over until payment is received
- let the client know ahead of time what is required, what is expected, and when the final payment is due

4.) Offer many methods of payment (cash, check, money order, various credit cards, PayPal...)
- consider a payment plan for those who need it

5.) Offer a discount for early, or pre-payment
- a special coupon, 2-5% off, or free magazines (whatever you can offer)

6.) chase a payment the moment it is due
- make your clients understand that a 30-day invoice is exactly that

I hardly do 30-day invoices any more, except as a courtesy for super reliable, already established clients.

Why??? Because Bby the time 30 days have gone by and...

* you have given it a couple extra days to make sure
* you have contacted the client
* the client has checked their records
* a new check has been issued and
* and the mail man finally delivered it

...it could easily turn into 60 days late, and another invoice due. After learning my lessons, all my invoices are due upon receipt, or no more than 15 days.

What else?

Tips about Starting a Medical Billing Business of your own.

Locating Money Sources for Your Medical Coding Business

Whether you are just opening your doors or you are a seasoned veteran in the medical coding industry, one thing’s for sure—cash flow is a crucial concern for any business owner. The bottom line: If you don’t have enough readily available cash to pay your employees, contractors, suppliers, and creditors you won’t stay in business for long.

Defined as the movement of money in and out of a business, cash flow is the heartbeat of a thriving medical coding business. Hence, the timing of its movement is extremely important to a company’s overall health. Ironically, it’s when business is booming that a company may start to have cash flow problems. Not only does more business create larger volumes of accounts, new growth opportunities also means purchasing new equipment and software, hiring additional coding specialists and possibly opening additional offices. In a nutshell, as a business grows, so too does its need for capital.

There are many reasons in addition to rapid growth that could explain why a company would need additional working capital. For example, seasonal influxes, local or national economic conditions, external economics and poor management decisions could all negatively or positively affect a business’ cash flow at any given time.

Read the FULL article here:
Locating Money Sources for Your Medical Coding Business

This article goes into great detail about how the need for capital arises and discusses the different approaches medical coding business owners can take in order to establish a balanced cash flow. In the end, if a business owner is willing to routinely analyze his/her company’s cash flow and respond accordingly to cash flow gaps, he/she is well on the way to managing a successful medical coding service. The facts are all here, how a business owner chooses to use them is up to him/her.