When physcial therapy practice owners start thinking about outsourcing their billing departments, one of the first things they worry about is delays in receiving money from us. They want to know if there will be a lengthy period between choosing us and receiving deposits.
As someone who ran a practice for many years, I am acutely aware that cash flow is vital to your success. You have bills to pay, payroll to meet, and supplies to purchase. The last thing you can afford is a disruption caused by outsourcing your billing.
When I founded Jet PT Billing, I knew I had to communicate completely and transparently with my potential clients so there were no surprises.
That’s what I want to do in this article. No matter whom you choose to work with for, your billing needs these 3 things will go a long way to easing the transition.
First, Plan Ahead for the Transition
Sometimes there are abrupt reasons to make the change. Maybe you’ve lost a key team member that used to do all your billing, it’s not ideal but it can be handled.
We tell our clients that it is a transition time of two to three weeks with most practices.
Much of the success of changing your billing over to a third party is dependent on you, the practice owner.
When I tell clients to plan ahead, I suggest that they give us a four-week runway to implement our system. That way there is little to zero delay in cash payments to your practice.
This allows time to gather all the necessary information from you and your team. It also allows some slack in dealing with any issues we encounter with Medicare and other large insurance carriers.
Our biggest hurdle is dealing with Medicare on your behalf. We’ve found that it takes about three weeks for the transition to be complete.
That’s why it’s important to start the transition well in advance. This way your business can continue without any undue hardship.
Once you’ve set aside that 4-week window of time, it’s time to move onto the next step.
Second, Provide Your Billing Company with All the Information They Need
Your billing company will need specific information that allows them to communicate with carriers and Medicare on your behalf.
Without this information the transition stalls and nothing can move forward.
Two pieces are the following digital identifiers for your practice:
• NPI number
• Tax-ID number
Once we have these two documents and any other relevant information, a billing company can put those into the Clearinghouse’s system. They pass it on to the payers, laying the payment conduit.
Again, with Medicare this is a three-week process and most private carriers are up and running in a week or so.
Since many claims can be submitted electronically, the claims process does not add any delays to the transition.
By setting aside a fair amount of time, choosing a solid third-party billing company, and sending them all the information they need, there should be absolutely zero reason for long delays and the process to drag out.
There’s only one thing left…
Finally, Trust the Process
A reputable third-party billing company should have a process in place for these transitions.
Ensuring that you’ve chosen a solid company to form a relationship is vital.
Communicate with them and trust the process.
We find that when working with our clients, the ones that have the smoothest transitions are the ones who give us all the information we need to get them set up in our system and communicate clearly along the way.
If you’re stuck in a difficult transition or just want some more information on how the process works, we are always happy to answer your questions and dive deep into the details.
Choosing to outsource your billing is a big decision – we don’t take it lightly.
Contact us today to see how easy we can make your team’s transition and remove the headaches associated with billing from your day-to-day operations.
Tags: Billing service, outsourcing physical therapy billing, physical therapy billing
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