Which is better than outsourcing dental billing services or in-house billing?

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With dental care comes the dental billing process, which is complicated and needs to be handled by an experienced team, who can manage all payment and admin-related activities. For the smooth flow of dental offices, it is important that payment-related processes run excellently. As the dental billing process revolves around payment systems, providers, insurance policies, claims settlements, and other follow-ups, so it should be managed by other admin staff or any company if not, then it could lead to dental care providers giving more time to these hectic changes rather than providing quality care to patients. 

If dental billing is not managed properly, then it could also put pressure on reimbursement rates, costs needed for purchasing and maintaining technology to provide dental care, and employee costs. To effectively run a dental practice, dental billing is an important aspect. There are two options available to manage dental billing: one is outsourcing and the other is to do it in-house. A thorough assessment of staffing, technology, volume, revenue cycle needs to be done to analyze which option is best for your dental service. The ultimate goal is to minimize the time spent on admin functions, coding, payments, and collection so that dentists can spend quality time with patients.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of in-house billing?

In-house dental billing means revenue cycle management needs to be taken care of in the house i.e the dental office or medical establishment providing service to patients. It implies that dental care providers need to take care of all the revenue related processes. They need to hire some billing experts, coding experts, and admin staff to take care of payments and billing processes. 

Pros:

  • The biller is available at any time of day: Issues related to payments and bills can be easily managed if billing is done in-house. Suppose if there is any billing issue, then it could be easily resolved by giving a closer look with the help of admin staff. It is more time-saving and gives quick results if done correctly.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of the patient: In-house, billing gives complete control to the dental care provider over the patient’s private details. It means it is in the dentist’s hands to protect such information and protect information. Sometimes the patient does not feel confident in sharing the information, so protecting it makes the bonding between patient and dentist strong.

Cons:

  • Higher charges: Cost of training provided to staff, the technology used, salary, and other charges for the employee’s costs more to the dental care provider.
  • Delay in billing settlement: If one staff is absent or out of the office, then the productivity of the billing department gets slowed down. In such a case, the revenue cycle of the dental office gets seriously hampered.
  • Effective training and management: The office staff needs to stay up to date by providing training from time to time about the modification in technologies and software upgrades.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourced billing services?

An efficient dental billing system needs both time and dedication by expert staff members. Outsource dental billing companies reduce or eliminate the time spent by the in-house team on dental billing. In this process, dental care providers give complete responsibility of revenue cycle management to a third party. Thus there is no responsibility of any staff member. Another advantage is that third-party agencies keep them updated so there are fewer chances of rejection of any claim. Additionally, the outsourcing company does all follow-ups with insurance companies for full and final settlement of claims. 

Pros:

  • Allows a dental care provider to focus more on patients: Managing the revenue cycle is a hectic task. It required a lot of effort, knowledge and sometimes claims due are not settled for a particular reason. Outsourcing companies allow you to make a timeless bonding with your patients without taking the burden of the revenue cycle.
  • Outsourcing companies are experts: Dental billing companies have a lot of expertise in managing revenue cycles and processing claims, therefore, they are experts in managing denials and resolving them at a fast pace.
  • Fewer costs: When a dental business is starting, then there are a fewer number of annual claims, so billing charges of outsourcing billing are less costly. This would decrease the cost of salaries and give more benefits to employees. Also, there is no charge for the cost of software, hardware, and training.

Cons:

  • Changing costs: Usually the outsourcing dental billing companies charge a percentage of collection and during the active season, these costs become high and this creates difficulty in managing the monthly revenue in dental practice.
  • Hidden costs: There could be additional fees which may compromise printing charges, startup charges, and costs required to cancel membership.
  • Less attention on denials: Some billing companies use one or more software and are not that experienced in using it. This may lead to paying less attention to Denial management and A/R delays.

Why is Outsourcing considered the best option?

  • When you decide to use outsource dental billing services, your revenue cycles are managed by experts. They follow the latest trends and make sure that claims are paid in a timely manner. This is why outsourcing is a better option as it is not easy for medical billing to manage the in-house team. 
  • When you outsource to a medical billing company you just need to give your best time in establishing relationships with patients and do not need to worry about any employee taking leaves, or internal disputes, or leaving the company.
  • In-house, teams require a lot of time to function, so dentists can be free from such responsibility by giving their revenue cycle’s tasks to an outsourcing company, where they have experienced staff that flawlessly carry out such functions.