Even as a healthcare consulting firm, we’re not above admitting that while the cost reporting function is incredibly important in your organization, it is typically very time consuming and has the ability to get in the way of the more exciting, more valuable revenue-generating aspects of your business.
If you’ve found yourself as a healthcare provider toiling over internal accounting tasks when you could have spent that time on more beneficial, big-picture projects like developing marketing to increase your patient census, you’re not alone. That’s why recent years have seen a growing trend in Medicare providers outsourcing their reporting and reimbursement function to consulting firms.
How do you know whether outsourcing the cost reporting function makes sense for your business? Let’s pose some of the most common questions facing healthcare providers:
- Do you struggle to get reliable information from your internal departments?
- Are employee costs, such as rising salaries and rising health insurance costs, making it more difficult to hire qualified Medicare or Medicaid cost reporting and reimbursement personnel?
- Have you spent significant money on robust billing software that isn’t used to its fullest potential, or at all?
- Are you spending too much of your time on back-office functions including Medicare cost reports, and not spending enough time growing your healthcare service?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then it’s time to consider outsourcing the cost report and reimbursement function.
Many businesses of all sizes are taking advantage of the growing trend of bringing in a specialized consulting firm to handle their back-office reporting and reimbursement functions. Let’s look at some of the benefits of outsourcing your Medicare and Medicaid cost reporting and reimbursement.
1. Money Saved. By outsourcing your business’s Medicare and Medicaid cost reporting and reimbursement operations, you can save money in not having to pay wages and benefits to existing employees.
With the rising cost of employee benefits such as health insurance many small businesses can’t afford the cost of full-time, qualified in-house specialists. Instead, they settle for part-time employees or full-time employees who cost less but aren’t qualified to perform the job well.
By outsourcing your cost reporting and reimbursement function, you only pay a flat fee to complete the required tasks, without being on the hook for employee benefits.
2. Specialized consultants working for you. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a team of specialized consultants that keep of with all the changes in regulation working for you? When you outsource your organization’s cost reporting and reimbursement function to a consulting firm, you are essentially hiring a team of professional consultants who have expertise and specialize in this area.
The bonus? You’ll get a team that specializes in cost reporting and reimbursement at a cost that is often less than one full-time, in-house employee who has little to no expertise in these areas, a definite advantage for your organization against your competitors.
3. Focus on growing your healthcare organization. Too often, healthcare providers and their staff get bogged down with problems like missing the reporting deadline or incurring reporting errors which will affect your agency’s reimbursement, increase the likelihood of an audit, and can cause your Medicare interim payments to be put on hold, ultimately affecting your organization’s bottom line and cash flow.
Outsourcing your cost reporting and reimbursement function will free you up to focus on bigger picture items like business profitability and growth, rather than getting tangled up in what can quickly become a cost reporting and reimbursement mess.
4. Insights from the outsider. When you outsource your organization’s cost reporting and reimbursement function to a consulting firm, those expert consultants will be looking at your financial information with an outsider’s perspective, which often puts them in a better position than you, the healthcare provider, to spot irregularities and cost-saving opportunities.
The people from your consulting firm should be there to assist you in analyzing and interpreting your financial data and in turn, make objective suggestions for increasing your reimbursement.
Likewise, healthcare providers can freely share sensitive information with a team of outsourced consultants that they might not feel comfortable sharing with employees.
What to Do Now?
Outsourcing your organization’s cost reporting and reimbursement function to a consulting firm can result in you getting outstanding expertise, efficiency and objective recommendations, all at a cost that is equal to or less than what you are paying your in-house staff.
Get in contact with Advantage Healthcare Consulting or reach out directly to Sandy McCleve at (626) 297-0094 to learn if an outsourced consultant is an option for this year’s cost report and reimbursement functions.
Leave a Comment