Outsourcing has become increasingly popular in a number of different of industries. Businesses with limited resources can benefit if they outsource certain tasks to the right organizations. In the case of health care, an increasing number of hospitals have outsourced a several administrative operations to make room for more pressing matters. A recent article in the Huffington Post addressed this phenomenon and listed a number of ways outsourcing can benefit both hospitals and their patients.
Most of these were centered around the financial side of the medical organization. More specifically, billing, which can be complicated if accounts are not sufficiently organized. A myriad of factors—ranging from multiple facilities that require consolidation to the national changes to health care financial system—contribute to the challenges of managing your billing operations. As a result, hospitals without adequate staff or technical resources run the risk of making mistakes.
"It's estimated that up to 80 percent of medical bills contain errors. Insurance companies are very strict on correct medical billing and coding practices, and even the smallest mistake can cause an insurance company to reject a medical billing claim," wrote Tom Lowery, the article's author.
Lowery suggests outsourcing can alleviate the risk of medical mistakes because internal staff won't be burdened by an influx of outstanding balances and excessive paperwork. By outsourcing low priority accounts to a third-party service provider, billing departments can focus on their important operations and ensure that they are managed perfectly, mitigating the risk of making a mistake and delaying any accounts receivable operations.