There comes a time for every behavioral health facility to decide whether it makes sense to build an in-house billing team or hire an outside company. There’s no one size fits all answer for every company but there are some advantages of hiring an outside billing company to keep in mind when making your decision.

• Specialized in the behavioral health industry: Hiring an outside billing company can ensure that the people doing your billing will be more specialized in your industry. There are huge differences between different kinds of medical specialties and especially in something as intricate and specialized as behavioral health, there are a lot of benefits in going with an outside company. In addition when it comes to audits from insurance companies, outside billing companies typically have the resources and experience to effectively deal with the carriers to rectify the audit. Here at CA Billing we’ve been able to identify a client is in an audit when they weren’t even aware of it. If payments drop significantly or stop altogether, many in-house biller’s are not able to diagnose the root cause and we’re able to pinpoint the issue and get reimbursements back on track in a timely manner.
• Bigger data set to see trends: One of the biggest advantages going with an outside billing company is their unique capabilities to see trends across different insurance providers. When you have an in-house billing department, you’re only really able to see what’s going on with the patients/clients you have currently in your care. While a lot of behavioral health facilities are feeling or experiencing decreases in reimbursement, our clients are seeing increases due to the extensive data we’re able to leverage benefiting all clients we work with. Combining this data set with our expertise and experience in the industry allows us to stay ahead of trends.
• Better ability to provide information on verification of benefits based on our data: As an independent billing company we see a very broad range of policies every month, not just a couple dozen from one facility. This along with our data-driven approach gives us the pulse on what policies are doing and what they are paying. While most facilities and billing departments are able to give a somewhat educated guess on whether or not to take a certain policy, we are able to provide detailed estimated reimbursements on what the policy will pay, giving our clients the best information to make well-informed decisions for their business.

So, do the benefits of hiring an outside billing company outweigh the cost?

• You will have to hire someone anyway to do your in-house billing
• With the expertise of an outside billing you will typically far more than make up for the billing fee through higher reimbursement, audit management, expert appeal response- ensuring all avenues for reimbursement are pursued.
• Have a pro handling your billing will free up your time to focus on providing the highest quality level of care and building your brand.

While there are reasons to invest in building an in-house billing department, there are many advantages of hiring an outside company with expertise, experience, and a breadth of knowledge and data.