Productivity is key to success, whether we’re talking about medical equipment billing, human resources, or operations. A well-structured system helps to meet your goals, and this is especially true for your billing department. Ensuring your DME staff is efficient at their jobs is necessary to minimize errors and comply with the ever-changing industry regulations.
This article will educate you on increasing your DME medical equipment billing department productivity, which will help increase your claim and AR payment rates.
How to Measure Your Billing Productivity
Before you adjust your billing process’s efficiency, you’ll want to determine how to measure your current productivity levels. There are several different ways you can monitor your productivity levels in your business. For example, if you want to review the productivity for the collection timeframe from payers and products, you can review:
- Your days sales outstanding (DSO) numbers
- Your collection percentage – Are you collecting what you are billing?
- The time your billing department employees work
Billing Productivity Example for Billing Employees
Output Rate: Your business submitted $10,000 worth of claims.
Input Rate: It took 40 hours of labor to submit the claims.
Equation: Divide the output rate ($10,000) by the input rate (40) to learn your billing productivity level for billing employees’ working hours.
Result: By using the above information, your business generates $250 per hour of work.
Increase Your Medical Equipment Billing Efficiency
Your DME billing workflow plays a big part in an effective Revenue Cycle Management process. The more efficient your billing team performs, the healthier the cash flow. Here are several ways you can grow your business’s productivity levels.
Strengthen Your Follow Up Procedures
Whether it’s following up with patients regarding their bills or checking on a claim’s status, this is an essential step not to miss. Oversight might occur because overworked staff cannot keep up with their responsibilities.
Possible Options
- Educate staff on the importance of follow up
- Recreate the billing procedure to stress the importance of the follow-up step
- Create a system where the billing team holds each other accountable for following up
Keep Current on the Latest Technology
Technology can help processes operate smoothly and allow staff to complete their jobs faster. Keep that information in mind if you think you don’t need to stay up-to-date on the latest software programs.
Possible Options
Keep current on:
- Electronic Health Records
- Billing software programs
- Accounting systems
Create a Team of Expert Billing Personnel
Are you confident that someone who is educated on DME billing and coding is an expert? It takes more to correctly bill claims than just education. DME billers need to be meticulous workers who know the ins and outs of the industry. For DME coding, if only one minor error occurs (outdated modifier or typo), then the claim is automatically rejected.
Did you know claim approval rates drop significantly if your team isn’t aware of the updated regulations? So, it’s a critical skill set to be well-versed in monitoring industry changes.
Possible Options
- Hire staff with several years of work experience
- Develop a rigorous billing process, then employ strict training for all staff
- Outsource to a DME billing company
Taking The Next Step
After learning your billing department’s productivity levels and how to increase those numbers, the next step is to consider outsourcing. Hiring a billing team for part or all of your needs allows you to combine strict follow-up procedures and the latest technology with an expert billing staff. And when that merging occurs, the results are exceptional.
Learn More About Outsourcing from an Industry Leader
At Medbill, our team knows DME billing like the inside of their hand. And they are familiar with staying current on all the industry changes and updates.
Contact us to learn more about our customized service options and how we can find the billing areas that will increase your bottom line.