As your private practice grows, you may want to think about bringing on a biller or hiring a billing company. This may especially be helpful if you have a practice with multiple clinicians. Outsourcing your billing will free you up to dedicate more time to building your practice through networking and marketing, as well as more time to attend to the administrative tasks of running a practice. If you’re a solo practice owner, it’ll give you more time to focus on your work with your clients.
Below are 3 things to think about when hiring someone to do your billing.
1. Do you want an in-house biller or a virtual biller and/or billing company?
If you are a solo or smaller practice, you might opt to have a person or company that does your billing virtually. What this means is that the person would work off-site. Most likely, you would have a contract with this person or company rather than bring them on as an employee. If you need more clarification on whether you want to hire an employee or contractor, check out this article. On-the-other-hand, if you choose to have an in-house person to do the billing for your practice, they would most likely be an employee. The pros of having someone in-house includes the ability to train that person in-depth on your company’s policies and procedures as well as practice management systems as it relates to billing. It also can be helpful to have a dedicated person or persons manage your day-to-day billing because they will be focusing solely on your company.
2. Do you want a biller who charges by the hour or a percentage of the income brought into the practice based on payment for sessions?
There are a couple of ways that billers and billing companies get paid:
- Per hour, which is self-explanatory
- Their receipt of a percentage of the payment received by clients and/or insurances companies for services rendered by the clinicians in the practice.
The biller or company might get paid on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis. Being paid on the percentage of payments coming in may be a motivator in recovering back payments. As well as staying on top of payment denial from insurance companies, or payments not received by clients.
3. Teach your biller your practice management system.
If you utilize a practice management system for your practice that has an option to perform billing tasks, it may be helpful to find a biller who is familiar with that system or one who is willing to learn it. This will only help to provide a level of continuity when most aspects of the client file are able to be maintained in one system. Even if you decide to use or teach someone how to use your system, it can also be helpful to have a spreadsheet where you can see your active clients at a glance as well as see notes from your biller and payments that might be outstanding to ensure a smooth flow of revenue in your practice!
Though we usually do not enter this field for the business aspect, it’s most definitely a key part in running a successful practice! I encourage you to think about areas where you can outsource tasks. And if bringing on a biller is one of them, begin doing your research on different billers and requesting interviews. You will be one step closer to having more time to grow your business!
Melissa J. McLean is a Licensed Counselor and Certified Professional Coach who is the owner of Morning Joy Counseling, a successful group practice that primarily helps individuals dealing with anxiety and depression, as well as couples who want to rebuild or strengthen their relationships. In addition, Melissa helps other professionals move beyond the gap between visualizing their dreams and making it a reality by mapping out their next right steps towards having a successful and fulfilling business!
Download her FREE 90-Day Goal Planner and learn the power of setting goals to increase success in your business HERE!
