Are you a mental health provider considering whether or not to utilize outsourced billing services? Every provider is familiar with how frustrating and challenging billing can be. Complicated insurance requirements, the shifting timelines of each payer, the changes in billing codes/regulations, and so much more have mental health providers spending way too much of their valuable time chasing down reimbursements, never seeing the best results.

Outsourced billing services can be a source of relief for you or your practice, offering a wealth of benefits to help you master and optimize your billing process as well as strengthen your bottom line.

Challenges of Mental Health Billing

So why is mental health billing so challenging? There are a few reasons that mental health professionals might find billing processes to be frustrating at times.

Mental Health Billing Codes

When you file a claim for reimbursement to an insurance provider, you are required to code that claim with the most accurate CPT code for the services you offered. Memorizing the correct application of these codes is anything but simple. Now, instead of only being an expert in your field, you must also be an expert in billing codes and other billing processes. This is not sustainable and leads to many errors in coding, resulting in denied/rejected claims.

Payer Requirements

To deepen the frustration of filing claims, each and every payer has different requirements that you must adhere to if you wish to get paid by them. Payer requirements might include the timeline for when you must submit the claim, what authorizations are required for different services when a denied claim must be resubmitted, how many times they will allow you to bill for a particular service and so much more. Keeping up with these payer requirements is an extreme burden that providers shouldn’t have to face.

There are dozens of more challenges that make mental health billing a hassle. How can outsourcing medical billing services help?

Benefits of Outsourced Billing Service

Providers no longer have to worry about the burden of in-house billing when they choose to utilize outsourced billing services. Some of the benefits of managed mental health billing include:

Streamlined Billing Process

Get paid on time, every time when you work with a quality managed billing partner. They will take over the most challenging part of your claims process and streamline the entire workflow so that claims are filed on time, adhering to every payer’s different requirements. With outsourced billing services, you no longer have to worry about dotting every single “i” and crossing every “t.” Instead, you can rely on your payments coming through exactly when you would expect them to.

More Clean Claims

Clean claims are the key to on-time payments. Even if a claim is submitted right away, there is no guarantee that it will come back as an in-full reimbursement. Sometimes claims get denied, delaying the reimbursement process. When you hand over the challenges of your billing process to mental health billing experts, you can trust that each claim is being coded accurately and sent out with the best odds of approval possible. Utilizing outsourced billing services increases clean claims dramatically so that you no longer have to fight for the payment you worked hard to earn.

Better Reimbursements

With an increase in clean claims and billing experts that know how to optimize each claim, reimbursements come back in full, more often. Rather than receive a partial reimbursement or battle with payers to get the payment you deserve, your outsourced billing partner will do everything in their power to get you the best reimbursement possible.

More Time for Clients

Easily one of the best benefits of outsourced billing services is that it gives providers more time for their clients. Mental health providers got into the field, not to work on billing, but to work with clients. Handing off your billing burdens to someone else allows you to return your attention to your client while still knowing your payments are on the way.

Dedicated Billing Specialist

A common concern with outsourced services is that there will be a lack of personalization or that it might be difficult to find someone to talk to. With the right managed mental health billing partner, you can have easy access to a dedicated billing specialist managing your account.

Ultimately, outsourced billing services are undoubtedly the best way to go for any provider looking to offload the challenges of mental health billing, pass on those challenges to true billing experts, and spend more time with their clients while boosting their bottom line.

How TheraNest Can Help

Did you know that we offer managed billing services to therapy practices of all sizes through our revenue management team? Have a team of expert billers with decades of behavioral health billing experience on your team!