With more people becoming aware of psychological problems and spending more money on psychiatry during the past ten years, the number of mental health experts and clinics has increased dramatically. Despite the growing need for mental health services, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for professional providers to receive fair compensation for their labor.
In the US, millions of teenagers and adults struggle with behavioral health concerns, with 1 in 5 persons (18 and older) suffering from a mental disease. Only around 45%, or 20 million, of the roughly 44 million mature Americans with mental illnesses in 2014 obtained mental health care in the previous year.
Understanding the concept of Mental Health Medical Billing
Medical billing include submitting claims for the patient’s healthcare services. Medical billing for behavioral health may be more challenging than for other healthcare specialties due to the specialty’s complexity. Therefore, it is crucial to outsource medical billing services which are equipped with the proper knowledge, skills, and tools to enable your healthcare institution to keep providing quality care for eating disorders, substance addiction, and mental health.
Difference between Mental Health Billing and Traditional Billing.
Although difficult to understand, the assessment and treatment of mental illness play a critical role in a patient’s overall health. As a result, psychiatrists and counsellors deliver services very differently from other types of healthcare providers. In comparison to other practices, the field of mental health also lacks a defined procedure. The wide variety of services on offer is one of the causes of that. The majority of money spent on behavioral healthcare goes into treatment sessions, and insurance providers keep track of how many sessions take place each day and for how long. Because of this, it is more difficult for clinicians to reconcile their medical care with a reliable and effective billing system which is why outsourcing medical billing is becoming popular.
High claim denial rates are a result of budget restrictions, a lack of committed staff to modify billing codes for behavioral health, insurance limitations, and regulatory changes. As a result, charging for mental health services is very different from billing for regular medical services due to all the regulations and financial requirements.
Here are the common signs, your mental healthcare billing should be outsourced:
- The task of medical billing may be time-consuming and frustrating for your administrative personnel. In addition to being time-consuming due to the ongoing training needed to stay current with regulatory changes, the procedure also takes important time off from their other specific duties.
- High personnel turnover due to administrative stress may have a negative impact on the billing department. The time and money required to continually assemble and educate your staff will be wasted, which will slow down the processing of insurance claims.
- Ineffective coding and billing procedures and lower insurance company reimbursements cause poor cash flow. Your administrative employees might not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to identify the problem’s core cause.
- Healthcare providers require enough time to offer treatment to their clients, but because of the time-consuming chore of coding and billing doctors have less resources to devote with their patients.
- Incomplete payer credentialing, which they believed had already been taken care of by their internal staff.
- The patient demographics and insurance details were either incorrectly recorded or the payers’ benefits and coverage were never confirmed.
- While submitting the claims, the customer did not adhere to the most recent and precise billing and coding standards. For example, they were categorizing the CPTs that were just replaced and withdrawn.
- Due to ongoing issues with their billing processes and patient issues, the customer fell behind in timely billing out all the bills to the payers.
At Medisys Data Solutions, we aim to provide our clients customized solutions, so that the medical billing issues can be resolved, and appropriate reimbursement can be offered to them.
When compared to treating patients, the payment process can indeed be frustrating and often a drag; but, the earlier you begin, the sooner you will be reimbursed. The best option is to outsource your mental health billing services to health billing companies such as Medisys Data Solutions, so that you can focus on your primary duty of catering to the needs of your patients.
