Checking References When Outsourcing Your Medical Billing

By Tory Smith, Director, Sales & Marketing

MedHelp, Inc., Medical Management Specialists

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Checking References When Outsourcing Your Medical Billing

Deciding to outsource your medical billing requires a well-planned tactic and a through process for evaluating reference checks.

Although there are several factors that should be adhered to in your selection criteria, reference checking is one of the most important steps that must be taken to ensure your selection(s) are worth your receivables.

Obtain a reference list of current and past customers of your prospective vendor. The past relationships will help you determine how easy it is to divest from the vendor, what, if any issues they had with the vendor, etc.

You should create a reference inquiry guideline stockpiled with questions designed around what you have experienced in your current operations, think about the knowledge sets needed to perform billing and what are the gaps in service not being facilitated in your own practice.

You and not the reference should control the areas of discussion you want to discuss with them. If you do not control the call, you may end up still uncertain about your final decision.

Develop your questions by thinking of pros and cons of what could happen as a result of outsourcing medical billing or keeping it in-house. Keep in mind these best and worst case scenarios should help to create questions that will help you decide where your potential medical billing company operates.

Ask specific questions that will provide you with sufficient data for you to make an informed decision, not ambiguous questions such as, “Did XYZ company improve your billing?” ask detailed questions such as, “What were some of the improvements you noticed as a result of using XYZ company and how did these improvements affect your —-?”

Review your questions with the following thought in mind “Will I be able to make an informed decision after these calls?” If not, what questions are you missing? Make sure that you have a pre-determined list of questions you need to address to get the information you need. Always ask the references if it is ok to contact them again if you think of any questions not asked or if they would contact you if they think of any pertinent information you should be aware of.

Your well thought questions should allow you to walk away from the call with all of the information you need to properly assess the potential of the medical billing company you are selecting.