Peter,
I have read your previous comments. I am a solo IM/Pulm. There are advantages and disadvantages to having your biller in house. Having your own biller will allow you to keep a closer eye on how much money is being billed out, how timely payments are and you can often process denials quicker. However, if you are small, and only have 1 biller, that person now truthfully holds the key to the cash flow in your office. Regardless of how many patient you see, or how many other evals you do, if those charges aren't processed and submitted, your cash flow is sitting stagnant on his/her desk.
I have been in solo practice for nearly 8 years. My first biller was very good, but eventually became quite power hungry and believed that she made the decisions about practice development and the like.... so I let her go. Living in a smaller area, my options for billers with experience were limited. I have had 2 other billers and each opted to go to a place with more money. One was irked that I would not pay for the link to let her work from home. It is hard to find a biller on such short notice, as when an employee leaves there may be 1-2 weeks or often no notice.
I use a billing company out of Pennsylvania called Medical billing professionals. We doe the charge entry.... ie E/M and procedure codes if any for both inpatient and outpatient work.
You prepurchase your claims in bulk.... do not pay a percentage.
They will bill primary, secondaries and the like.
My cash flow is not held hostage if my biller is out sick or on vacation. And I have no salary/benefits to pay for the employee.
Yes, I am paying for it in the data entry protion of things, but that far outweighs the cost to the business for an experienced biller. Additionally, I am not responsible for maintaining the training of the biller/billing service.
Just some thoughts.
