Reclaim Your Practice: Why Outsourcing Medical Coding Makes Sense

As a healthcare provider, your main job is to care for patients. But a complex administrative job like medical coding always takes you away from your core focus viz. patient care. It is natural to feel overwhelmed and overtaxed. 

Outsourcing medical coding can help. Many practices find it’s a good solution.  

Let’s see why. 

The Ever-Shifting Sands of Medical Coding: A Complex Landscape 

Medical codes change all the time. New rules and codes appear every now and then.  

For example, the ICD-10 has tens of thousands of codes. CPT codes are also very detailed. Your team can only stay updated when they are provided with constant learning, thus requiring you to spend a substantial amount of money on keeping your coding team trained and efficient.  

Coding errors are costly. You would be shocked to hear that almost 80% of claims have errors related to coding and billing formalities. A single error in your coding process can cause your practice to face claim denials and payment delays. This can lead to your practice losing up to 10% of its yearly income. And that’s a big financial hit. 

Fortunately, you can still avoid the financial blow by simply outsourcing your medical coding. The right medical coding partner always helps you enjoy a host of benefits, such as: 

Unlocking Substantial Cost Savings:  

Outsourcing medical coding always saves money. The cost of maintaining an in-house team always goes beyond the salaries. You also pay for benefits, training, office space, and software. Plus, denied claims add expenses. A professional medical coder in the US charges almost $28 per hour, which accounts for an annual salary of more than $58,000. Further, you need to spend an added amount of $25,000 to $30,000 on staff training, purchasing billing tools, and peripheral office costs. It is almost $88,000 a year, and that too without counting the cost of denied claims. 

A professional medical coding company, on the other hand, charges anywhere between $7 – $10 hour and on top of that, leaves you free from having to bother about spending anything extra on additional liabilities like licenses for billing software, office furniture, office equipment and so on, as everything is taken care of by your coding partner. 

Improved Efficiency through Faster Reimbursements and Streamlined Operations 

The simple truth is, outsourcing medical coding makes your practice run much better. A special team of certified coders focuses only on coding so that you can always enjoy faster claim processing, fewer errors and prompt payments. These firms always adjust their working hours based on your time zone. Many practices see a 50% drop in claim processing time. This speeds up your money flow. The MGMA found that outsourced billing led to 20% faster payments and 15% fewer claim denials. Correct coding from the start means fewer reworks. This lets your staff focus on patients, appointments, and clinical tasks more. 

Utmost Expertise at Your Fingertips:  

A professional medical coding company has coders who clearly understand all the complex coding systems like ICD-10, CPT, DRG and HCPCS, along with a strong foundation of NCCI edits and payer rules. The best part is that no matter what your exact medical domain is, an expert company always has sound coding knowledge for your domain.  

Further, professional coders know what it takes to ensure 100% compliance with changing healthcare regulations, thus eliminating the risk of potential audits and penalties. The global medical billing and coding market is expected to reach the milestone of $16.12 billion in 2024. The US market itself is estimated to touch the milestone of around $54.17 billion by 2034. This growth shows an increasing trust in outsourced coding services due to their specialized expertise. 

Bolstering Security and Data Confidentiality:  

Just like most medical practices, you might also have concerns about data security, especially when you are planning to outsource your coding process. Fortunately, a professional medical coding company understands your exact concerns and knows how to implement proper security measures to protect your sensitive Patient Health Information. 

These measures typically include: 

• HIPAA Compliance: Your outsourced coding partner is always bound to comply with HIPAA regulations when your Patient Health Information is concerned.
• Secure Data Transmission: Your patient data always remains protected with a professional coding and billing partner, as they always leverage advanced data transmission methods.

Improved Scalability and Flexibility: 

You cannot predict your patient volume as it always fluctuates. The seasonal surges in patient flow, temporary staff shortages, and sudden drops in patient volume are very common in medical practices. Managing these variations can be overwhelming for you, leading your practice to face staff burnout or underutilization of staff members. This is exactly where outsourcing can be a great help for you, as outsourced coders can easily adjust their coding capacity based on your real-time patient volume. The best thing is that you can easily scale up your support during busy times without facing the hassles of hiring and training temporary staff. 

Patient Care: What Really Matters for You 

You can always spend more time diagnosing, treating, and connecting with patients when your medical coding company handles the end-to-end complex coding process. Always remember that the better patient care you provide, the more patient satisfaction you can earn. 

Now that you are aware of the benefits that you can enjoy by hiring a medical coding company, it’s time to hire the perfect one for your practice. Are you looking for an efficient coding company? Your search ends here as we, at SunKnowledge Inc., can provide the best support for you. 

SunKnowledge: The Perfect Medical Coding Partner  

We have been helping healthcare providers in the US with our billing and coding for more than a decade. Each of our coding professionals has strong expertise in all coding types like ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS, and DRG, hence ensuring clean claims, excellent cash flow, and improved revenue for your practice. 

So what are you waiting for? Choose SunKnowledge Inc. as your trusted medical coding partner and ensure the perfect coding practice.