HME Billing Staffing Shortage: What You Need to Know

With the advent of technology, the healthcare industry is transforming in terms of clinical and administrative protocols, and it is getting more difficult to cope with the changes.  

Home Medical Equipment (HME) providers are in a tough spot today with the frequent changes in regulations and guidelines and the consistent staff shortage. If you are dealing with delayed or lower reimbursements, competitive bidding, and high labor costs, you may be in the same space.    

The true impact is, however, the side effect of these changes: problems in staffing with your billing team. Here are the 3 most common issues that most HME providers are experiencing currently.   

  1. Your employees are exhausted: Your team might often complain about their workload. As we know, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the aging population within the country are increasing, which has increased HME demands. As a result, your team is prone to be burdened by a larger workload, may feel quickly exhausted and give rise to errors in HME billing and coding procedures. A study has identified that more than 40% of HME providers hire new employees each year. This costs them a huge portion of their revenue, time and other resources, adversely impacting their practices.    
  1. High turnover: Increasing workload and decreasing skilled workforce together create just the right recipe for high turnover. Employee churn is the overall turnover your team is experiencing. While these employees leave an organization looking for less stress and workload, the remaining team struggles to cope with the same. As a result, there are errors in HME billing and coding processes which lead to claim denials and revenue loss. 
  1. Piling up backlogs: The most concerning aspect of high staff turnover is with rising backlogs. The more backlogs you have, the more money you leave on the table. With a significant staff shortage, your team might fall behind on its accounts receivable or claim denials and cash posting. You might be backlogged in the front office, which can result in errors in collecting accurate and necessary patient information. It is a potential barrier on your way to revenue generation. 

The Effective Solution in Your HME Billing Staff Shortage   

A team of outsourced experienced medical billers and coders is a plausible solution for your staffing shortage problem in HME billing. Sunknowledge Services Inc. has helped some of the biggest providers within the country. Sunknowledge, the top RCM solution revolutionizing healthcare billing, can help you realize the full potential of your billing operations.    

Our cutting-edge solutions are exceptionally potent and are available at affordable prices without sacrificing productivity or standard metrics. With regular payor and provider audits, and top-tier certifications in cyber security and HIPAA compliance, we are constantly up-to-date and error-free, resulting in more return on investment and smooth billing processes for you.    

We’ve been ahead of the curve for more than 14 years, thanks to ongoing training from major health insurers. We manage claims with unparalleled precision, spanning over thirty-plus disciplines like cardiology and radiology.    

We are pleased to be the only RCM provider working with payors and providers, providing many well-known brands in the sector with unique advantages including devoted account managers, a 10% buffer for continuous billing, and dedicated resources.    

Furthermore, we are pleased to offer references from every state. Select Sunknowledge for a modern, efficient method of handling AR, prior authorization, claims adjudication, and other issues that have been refined over many years.