You might have already realized that the entire healthcare domain in the U.S. is going through a serious staffing shortage. Today the majority of hospitals, clinics, and medical practices find it really challenging to ensure seamless patient care due to the lack of trained professionals. This shortage puts further stress on you, making it difficult to maintain efficiency throughout the clinical care and practice management sides. However, one excellent way to ease this burden is to outsource medical coding services and other critical billing components of your healthcare practice.

The Staffing Shortage: A Pressing Concern in the U.S. Healthcare Sector

You are probably familiar with the term called the “Great Resignation?” It happened in 2022 when millions of employees across different industries resigned from their jobs. Now, this exact phase may be over, but the healthcare system is the U.S. is still struggling with major staffing shortage. Some of the vital reasons behind the ongoing staffing shortage are aging population, frequent retirement of healthcare providers and educational bottlenecks as they are mentioned below-

Aging population: You might have already realized that more Baby Boomers are approaching their age of retirement, thus creating an increased demand for healthcare services. We all know the fact that older citizens need more medical attention for various chronic conditions, routine check-ups, and special care. Just like the majority of healthcare practices, you may also feel the struggle to keep up with the continuously growing number of patients. The whole healthcare system is under pressure to employ enough doctors, nurses, and administrative staff members with more seniors needing proper care. This increasing demand makes the existing staffing shortage even worse.

Retirement of healthcare workers: A big part of the healthcare workforce is getting ready to retire, and that’s creating a serious gap. Many experienced doctors, nurses, and administrative staff members, like medical coders and billers, are leaving, taking years of experience and knowledge with them. You strongly need skilled people to step in, but training your new staff members is a time-consuming affair. Additionally, you also experience a shortage of enough fresh graduates to fill the roles soon enough. This staffing gap causes more stress to you as it makes things challenging enough for you to keep up with patient care, medical coding and billing, and overall operational management.

Educational bottlenecks: You’re seeing nursing schools and medical programs struggling to grow, making it harder to bring in new healthcare professionals. The truth is that there are not adequate training programs, instructions, and resources to keep up with the burgeoning demand. Even if more students want to start their careers in the medical field, there are only limited spots in medical schools. This means only fewer professionals are entering the workforce while the requirement is rising. This situation always causes staff shortages, longer waiting times, and additional pressure on your existing clinical and administrative teams.

The recent vital data underscores the severity of this particular issue-

• The American Association of Colleges of Nursing says there will be a bigger shortage of registered nurses (RNs) as more U.S. citizens are getting older and need more healthcare.
• Also, you need to know that a recent study conducted by Vivian Health indicates a potential deficit of almost 295,800 nurses across the nation, aligning with projections forecasted earlier.
• The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) reports that 88% of healthcare leaders are struggling with administrative staffing shortages, making it harder to manage billing, coding, and other essential tasks efficiently

Now you must know how the staffing shortage can have a serious impact on your healthcare industry.

The overall impact of staffing shortage on the healthcare industry:

Patient care: Overburdened staff may lead to increased medical errors, longer patient wait times, and compromised care quality.

Higher Burnout Rates Among Healthcare Staff: You might have already started seeing your administrative staff members working longer hours, handling additional responsibilities, and feeling exhausted. No wonder the ongoing staffing shortage means limited hands to complete the work, thus causing burnout for your existing team. Not only the doctors and nurses but also your medical coders and other administrative staff members are dealing with constant stress and fatigue. Mistakes can happen frequently, overall patient care can be compromised, and employee morale drops when your team is overworked.

Reduced operational efficiency: Your practice is not the only one to face the ongoing heat as most healthcare practices struggle to keep adequate staff members to ensure proper patient care. Everything slows down when you run out of enough doctors, nurses, and administrative resources in your practice. Your patients always wait longer, paperwork increases and every staff member in your clinic feels overwhelmed. You would also notice more clinical and clerical errors, delayed reimbursements, and stressed-out employees. This gap in your staffing always affects your overall patient care and operational efficiency, making things more inconvenient for you.

Financial strain: You are spending more on labor costs because of overtime and temporary staff. You always have to rely on expensive short-term solutions to keep things running smoothly when you do not have adequate employees. No wonder that hiring temporary staff often costs more than having a full-time team. These rising expenses make it harder to manage your budget, putting more pressure on your practice. Over time, this can hurt your financial stability and make daily operations even more challenging.

To ensure seamless medical practice and reduced administrative hassles, most healthcare organizations are now outsourcing medical coding and services along with the other pre-billing and post-billing components.

Why should you outsource medical coding services to stay profitable?

You deal with a lot of medical records every day, and medical coding helps turn all that information into standardized codes. These codes are crucial for billing, insurance claims, and keeping accurate patient records. You will always face delays, denials, and financial losses without making your coding process proper. You can always outsource your coding job to experts instead of relying on an inexperienced in-house administrative team.

In fact, the key advantages that you can enjoy by having your coding and billing process is something worthwhile, starting from:

Cost savings: You cannot deny the fact that hiring and retaining new employees is not a costly proposition, especially for specialized roles like medical coding. You will always be able to save money on recruiting and training new staff members, regular training sessions on medical coding, healthcare benefits for your employees, and paid leaves by having your coding part outsourced. The great thing is that you can always keep experienced professionals at a lower cost with an outsourced partner. This cost-effective solution always helps you allocate your resources where they really matter the most, improving patient care and overall operational efficiency.

Enhanced accuracy: You can always have the advantage of working with highly trained and experienced medical coders by outsourcing medical coding services. These experts specialize in error-free coding so that you can face minimized claim denials and delinquent claims. A professional team of medical coders knows what it takes to stay on top of the latest coding and insurance regulations. Always remember one thing fewer coding mistakes mean fewer rejected claims, prompt payments, and smooth revenue cycle management for your practice.

Proper adherence to compliance: You can always benefit of working with experts who stay updated on the latest coding standards and regulations. Your overall medical coding process can always follow the latest compliance requirements when you have an outsourcing partner by your side. You do not have to worry about keeping up with ever-changing insurance regulations as your coding partner handles it for you, leading your practice to ensure accurate claim submissions.

Focus on Core Activities: Outsourcing medical coding services always allows healthcare providers like you to fully concentrate on patient care and other critical clinical areas without worrying about the hassles of coding.

So, are you planning to outsource medical coding services? If so, you have just landed in the right place. We, at Sunknowledge Inc., know what it takes to streamline a perfect medical coding process for you, thus leading you to enjoy maximized clean claims, excellent cash flow, and amplified fiscal revenue.

Sunknowledge: An ideal outsource medical coding service provider for your practice.

You can count on Sunknowledge as a trusted RCM partner with a strong track record of helping healthcare providers across the U.S. with billing and coding challenges. Known for top productivity, we have a team of certified, experienced coders who deliver customized solutions to fit your unique coding needs.

Let us share a scenario where we enabled one of our clients to see a revenue increase of 83.5% in collections with improved compliance.

A recent success story of Sunknowledge:

Recently, we worked with one of the largest DME providers in the U.S. to streamline their coding process. Their documentation gaps led to under-coding and revenue loss. Our certified coders implemented a precise CDI-driven approach, ensuring accurate condition capture. As a result, they saw an 83.5% increase in revenue and improved compliance, reducing audit risks significantly.

Our coding experts are also highly proficient in DRG coding as we really understand that almost 73% of healthcare practices are struggling to manage the nuances of the DRG coding process.

DRG coding-Improving reimbursement for your practice:

DRG coding helps medical practices get reimbursed based on a patient’s diagnosis, treatment, and case complexity—not just the cost of care. It’s essential for Medicare and insurance payments, but accuracy is the key. That’s where we excel, ensuring precise coding for fair compensation.

Know about the Sunknowledge’s assurance:

• Market-leading coding expertise in ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS and DRG coding
• We stay updated with the latest coding rules to keep you compliant and reduce risks in a strict regulatory environment.
• Customized coding solution which is tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by your practice
• Highly advanced resources and state-of-the-art technology to ensure minimized delays, improved accuracy, and the fastest reimbursements
• Personalized account management

Try Sunknowledge risk-free for 30 days! No contracts, no hidden fees—just expert billing at $7/hour. We guarantee the best price and productivity, so you can focus on patient care while we handle the rest.

So, outsource medical coding services to us and enjoy an excellent competitive edge in the highly competitive healthcare market. Schedule a non-obligatory call with us today and see how we can make a difference for you!