Whether you manage a small clinic, run a medical institute, or are an independent healthcare provider, it is important to use the latest technologies and offer the best services to serve your patients better. And a large percentage of healthcare professionals want to use the latest technology and software platforms to streamline medical billing and coding.
In fact, technology has had a huge impact on medical billing and coding. In the past, the billing and coding work used to be manual and paper-based. Today, there are coding and billing professionals who perform tasks electronically and virtually.
Many reliable medical coding companies help medical offices allocate and manage human and financial data efficiently. These companies play a major role in improving the profitability of medical practices with billing and coding professionals.
Medical companies offer the latest billing and coding education and training programs online. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that technology has altered several aspects in the field. The increasing impact poses the question, “how does technology impact the billing and coding industry? And what can you expect in the future?”
Let’s find the answers to these questions.
The Current State of the Medical Industry
The healthcare and medical system needs to constantly evolve to match the pace of technology and address the needs of patients. Incorporating tech solutions is also important to stay competitive in the industry.
Recently, the healthcare system experienced many challenges and changes such as:
- Rising costs of healthcare
- Inefficient processes
- Lack of proper patient-specific treatments
- A growing number of people with chronic and acute ailments
The recent times have been testing for the capability, potential, and capacity of healthcare. Due to the pandemic, hospitals and healthcare centers are understaffed and overburdened and finding it hard to deal with the increasing numbers of patients.
These trends have affected both healthcare providers and patients. Healthcare professionals need assistance in everything from close availability of medical services and facilities.
The solution to all these healthcare challenges involves incorporating and executing technological solutions. It includes complete digital transformation with modern equipment and innovative systems.
Role of Technology- Medical Billing and Coding
Digital technology has substantially helped and streamlined many healthcare functions. And medical billing and coding are not an exception. The biggest benefit of using technology in medical billing and coding is that it streamlines processes.
The biggest benefits of using technology are reducing manual work, saving time, and eliminating errors that may affect the medical process.
Medical Coding
Medical coding is a process of taking notes of patients’ diagnostic and treatment information and converting or translating them into alphanumeric codes for record-keeping and accurate billing. Some types of medical codes include:
- Current Procedural Codes (CPT)
- Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)
- International Classification of Disease (ICT)
Medical Billing
Once professionals complete the coding process, the next step is generating accurate invoices and claims. The entire process depends on coding. Sending these invoices to the insurers for payment is a part of medical billing.
The insurance companies accept or deny the claims based on codes. If a medical service or facility isn’t covered by the insurance policy, the company sends it back to the patients. As soon as a patient books an appointment with a healthcare professional, the billing process starts.
The Purpose of Incorporating Digital Medical Billing and Coding
Many medical facilities use digital medical billing or outsource these functions to medical coding companies. Using digital medical billing and coding can help:
Reduce Administrative Responsibilities
Digital medical billing is one way to invest staff hours and fewer dollars to keep your employees updated on medical modifiers, sub-sets, and coding changes.
Employees also spend relatively less time finding vital information and preparing claims for submission. There are many cases where medical staff has to be on the phone for long hours to connect to insurance carriers for pre-authorization.
This is what takes a lot of time and effort from the medical staff that they can spend educating their patients about the medical conditions and responding to their inquiries on the portal.
Improve Cash Flow and Decrease Operating Cost
According to the Medical Billing Services Guide by Advanced-Data System and Corporation (ADS), with digital coding, hospitals and clinics handle billing and can boost revenues by up to 30 percent. Moreover, they receive payments faster with less effort from the staff. Furthermore, there is no need to invest in a staff training program.
Know that digital medical billing leverages state-of-the-art technology that maximizes coding to capture higher revenues.
Eliminate Coding and Billing Errors
Digital medical billing is one of the most efficient ways to save your time as well as money. It also accelerates reimbursement as the company scrubs various claims and finds coding errors that slow down the payment process.
Precisely, digital medical billing uses high-tech software that rectifies coding errors, incorrect information, and transposed numbers in the claims before they are submitted to insurance carriers. This results in fewer claims and denials pended for extra info and less work for your admin team.
Summing Up
Medical coding and billing are time-consuming tasks. Managing these tasks is particularly difficult for medical facilities during a global pandemic. They need to recruit and train professionals to handle the coding and billing tasks efficiently. This is because incorrectly processed claims affect the revenue cycle. Thus, hiring reputed medical coding companies can help make the process stress-free and easy.
