Is Outsourcing Radiology Billing the Key to Success?

The Seamier Side of Radiology Billing Healthcare professionals who are debuting for the first time with their imaging services get mixed emotions while working i.e. they’re excited about their work but they get easy burnout during daunting radiology billing processes. Because radiologists are trained to provide extensive care to patients they might not know the overall process of radiology billing. However, the key to an excellent medical billing process lies in handling medical codes, patient medical documentation, and knowing the basic health insurance policy payment guidelines.

Healthcare professionals can work on the medical billing process seamlessly, but to do so, they need more time throughout the entire day. Most of the time in a day, radiologists spend time checking and diagnosing patients’ medical conditions or ailments and providing them with different treatment plans. This shortens radiology providers’ working hours. A radiology billing process can never be done in a hurried and scurried way. Doing so will lead to increased errors, incomplete billing, or missing supportive information or documentation.

Radiologists and imaging facilities need to skillfully optimize their overall revenue generation process to sustain their business in this competitive healthcare sector. All they need is to set a proper plan for better revenue generation. Radiology billing is indeed complex, due to which radiology providers tend to employ in-house medical billers and coders. However, at times appointing in-house radiology billers can become difficult to handle and maintain because healthcare organizations have to invest in office infrastructure, install new medical billing software, pay salaries & benefits, purchase or rent a new office building, and whatnot!

What Kind of Strategy Does An Imaging Practitioner Need?

Understanding the guidelines of insurance providers is a must! Every insurance provider is different, and they have a different set of rules and regulations up their sleeves. If these protocols are not followed correctly, radiologists can get claim denials, payment rejections, and delayed reimbursements. To effectively deal with new insurance providers, radiology providers need to understand the process of billing for the services rendered. At times insurance providers might not disclose ‘why they’ve rejected your claim,’ you may need to reach out to them to resolve this issue.

In such situations, all you need is an experienced and expert third-party radiology billing company, who can efficiently do the billing for you or reach out to the insurance companies if there’s a ‘delay in payments’ or ‘claim rejection.’ Radiology practitioners need to outsource their billing to enhance their patient care and worry less about radiology billing requirements. Radiology CPT Codes

The radiology department normally uses CPT codes to convert a patient’s medical documentation to make it ‘readable’ for insurance providers. Current Procedural Terminology or CPT in short is utilized by doctors/healthcare professionals as a ‘uniform language’ to convey the medical condition of a patient to the insurance providers.

Here are some radiology CPT codes maintained and set by American Medical Association (AMA):
♦ CPT code ranging from (77261-77999) used for Radiation Oncology
♦ CPT code ranging from (70010-76499) used for Diagnostic Radiology
♦ CPT code (77072) used for Bone/Joint Studies
♦ CPT code ranging from (76506-76999) used for Diagnostic Ultrasound Procedures

Interventional radiologists use the following CPT codes for radiology billing:

♦ Biliary stone extraction: 47630
♦ Thrombectomy: 34490

Pain Points in Radiology Billing

Bundled Services: Radiology procedures often consist of multiple elements and services bundled as a whole. Reporting these bundled services altogether becomes a challenge and failing to do so can result in inappropriate reimbursements.

Radiology Pre-Authorization: Sometimes imaging services (providers) require prior authorization from insurance providers (payers) before commencing medical treatment. Improper way of handling prior-authorization documentation can lead to delays in submitting claims and reimbursement denials.

Radiology providers who want impeccable results and on-time payments as per services rendered to their patients, need to outsource radiology billing services immediately to save time, and money and decrease severe burnout.

By outsourcing radiology billing, doctors, physicians, and other radiologists can save a lot of money, and time. A revenue cycle management service provider can take care of medical documentation, medical billings, and medical codes. So that healthcare professionals can focus on other tasks, and deliver proper care to their patients.