Countering Rising Cost in DME Billing and Maintaining Profitability

The Need for Economy in DME Billing

Echoing the surprisingly prophetic Dickensian utterance of the world being at the best of times and the worst of times at the same time, the current world too seems to find itself delicately balanced between two extremes. Yes, the COVID-19 threat is mostly gone, and things are pretty much returning to normalcy. But again, the US economy is plagued by one of the worst inflations in recent history and is threatened by a looming depression.

For the sake of this piece of writing, we’ll take a closer look at the darker picture for the time being. Costs are on the rise everywhere while profits and productivity are yet to return, to say the least, to their pre-COVID glory. In the sphere of DME billing (or billing for healthcare supplies and devices collectively termed as ‘Durable Medical Equipment’), the effects have already started to be felt in an alarming way. With many having switched jobs or gone into early retirement during the pandemic, there is an acute dearth of skilled labor in the market. To compound to the problem, minimum wages are on the verge of getting upwardly revised. Indeed, rarely have DME providers been more worried about swelling operational costs than now.

Staying Afloat in Difficult Times

When the domestic market is in such turmoil, many businesses across the US are exploring offshore outsourcing to stay afloat during these difficult times. A case in point is DME billing. Since skilled billers are getting increasingly difficult to find at the same prices as the pre-pandemic times, DME providers are engaging third-party agencies to get their billing done without having to burn a hole in their pockets. It works like this. The name of the game is strategic offshore outsourcing, and the players are highly skilled yet extremely affordable medical billing companies. By basing their operations in countries where skilled labor is plentiful but comparatively less expensive than the US, healthcare practices are now able to get all their billing done in an efficient yet highly cost-effective manner.

While it is true that most DME providers decide to outsource in order to reduce billing expenses, the benefits go far beyond that. What is frequently noticed is, in case one has chosen well, an overall amelioration of the billing & collections process. The entire revenue cycle stands to gain from such an improvement. Denials get reduced, collections increase and practices are able to get more billing completed in less time. And these are the kind of benefits that are sure to excite any DME provider looking to take their business to the next level and ensure sustained profitability, even when the times may not be entirely conducive to such growth.