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Losing Money because of Medical Billing
Few occurrences are as aggravating in a medical practice than to lose money because of billing practices. The reason is that this is a critical cash component of your business that can easily be improved. In fact, hiring a good medical billing company can help stem the money leaks resulting from poor billing practices:
- Slow billing. Slow billing is where the bill does not get submitted to the payor in a timely manner. This means late submission of claims resulting in late processing and even later reimbursements. While this may not be technically a direct financial loss, it lowers your efficiency, strains your cash flow and can create a reputation as a slow submitter. This can lead to slow payments from your provider. They may think if you do not care enough to bill in a timely manner, you might not care about when you receive payment.
- Inaccurate billing. At a cost of somewhere in the $8.00 to $10.00 range to produce, you want the bills to be accurate. If the claim is rejected (not accepted into the claims payment system) or denied (accepted into the system but not paid), you could be out some serious cash flow that you need to meet your expenses. The personnel doing the billing must be trained and up-to-date on current payor expectations and other regulatory compliance necessary to submit clean claims.
- Inadequately trained billing staff. Is your staff properly trained in the myriad of regulations, procedures, coding requirements and data knowledge required to properly submit a medical claim? Few are. That is one reason what it makes good sense to seek out a good medical billing firm. They can provide thousands of dollars each month in cash flow that you may not be accustomed to.
Another factor to consider in selecting a medical billing firm is that there are many fraudulent ones operating, especially over the internet. They could be up-coding bills (charging brand name prices for generic product), billing private instead of semi-private rooms or other improper services. If you do not perform your due diligence on these medical billers, you might be in more trouble than some lost billing dollars!
A way to prevent this is to check the credentials of the firm you are considering. Ask if they belong to the American Medical Billing Association (AMBA), the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) or a professional collection group like the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.
About the Author
Prior to the founding of RMK, Ronald McLaughlin was President/CEO-Founder of McMaid Total Home Care, one of the largest providers of home care services in the nation. From 1975 through 1979, he developed and grew the business from a three person enterprise to an organization that operated in five states with more than 3,000 employees. McLaughlin sold the business to Wright Market in 1979.
McLaughlin founded RMK in 1980 as a financial management company. With two employees and a few small accounts, he developed the business that has collected and processed more than $100 million in debt collections since its inception.
The business was diversified to focus on medical billing, revenue management, accounts receivable management, collections, subrogation, revenue enhancement reviews, and billing office-staffing analysis in addition to its full collection agency service programs.
King Midas Becomes Ozymandias
Situated in one of The Big Apple's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University boasts both research and teaching divisions. As one of the most selective of medical schools in the country, enrolling only about a hundred students per class out of some six thousand applicants in any given year. Now named Weill Cornell Medical College and, even more often, simply "Weill Cornell," its largest endowment to date has come from the billionaire banker and philanthropist Sanford Weill, former executive officer and chairman of Citigroup, Incorporated. Mr. Weill and his wife donated over two hundred and fifty milion of their own money, with Mr. Weill able to raise a further hundred and fifty million through his own tireless efforts.
The school was already famous long before Mr Weill's contributions, so it was never at a loss for donors, a veritable Who's-Who of local, national, and even international luminaries from business, politics, and entertainment, for instance real estate veteran Isaac Toussie. It was the first medical school in the country to admit women alongside men. And now it's become the first American one to operate abroad - in Education City, in fact, outside the capital of Qatar, with a campus dedicated to patient care offering a six-year integrated curriculum. The school is also famous for all its many notable graduates, leading men of medicine like Robert C. Atkins of Atkins Diet fame and former Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop. Other famous graduates are Nobel Prize winner Robert W. Holley and Henry Heimlich of the Heimlich Maneuver.
Nonetheless, despite all the monetary support, the economics of a medical education are severe, with some forty-two thousand dollars needed for the first year and thirty-eight thousand required for the second. Nevertheless, that's a bargain considering Cornell's law school tuition, which adds up to almost a hundred and fifty thousand dollars over four years!
Canadian school for undergrad then American medical school?
I'm having trouble deciding a college and I'm wondering if going to Canada for undergrad would be detrimental if I want to come back for medical school. I like the programs that the Canadian schools offer but I also hear that it makes coming back harder. Some schools don't accept degrees from Canada and some make it harder for Canadians to come in. I'm looking at University of Toronto and McGill University. Does anyone know much about this? Thanks so much in advance!
My advice is to talk to a professor from the schools you are interested in and also look briefly at schools you might go to for grad school to attempt to find out what the rules are.
When I Was Young, Old People Were Poor. Now That I Am Old, Young People Are Poor (Akron Beacon Journal)
Pew Research Center released a study today on the wealth and income gap
between the young and the old. Today, people over 65 have a net worth that is
47 times greater than the net worth of adults under 35. They even earn more
money than young adults. The Pew Research Center study is The [...]
Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine
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