Monday, March 5, 2012

Hipaa Compliant Physician Billing Services For Gastroenterologists

Physician billing companies offer healthcare professionals cost-effective solutions to save them time and money. Gastroenterology practices are getting busier by the day with the rise in the number of patients. To simplify their administrative tasks and maximize reimbursement, reliable service providers offer HIPAA complaint physician billing services to specifically meet the needs of gastroenterologists.

Medical billing solutions in keeping with HIPAA norms

Accurate medical billing and coding for gastroenterology is challenging and requires a high level of knowledge to ensure maximum reimbursement. A reliable outsourcing company would ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This act mandates:

Standardized formats for all patient health, administrative, and financial data
Unique identifiers (ID numbers) for each healthcare entity
Security mechanisms to ensure confidentiality and data integrity for the information

While delivering error-free medical billing services, the confidentiality of patient and practice information is maintained at all times. Every measure is put in place to ensure that patient information is secure and accessed only by authorized personnel. HIPAA compliant medical billing company ensures

Periodic backup of data and critical facilities accessibility
Secure workstations, storage facility and authorized access
Firewalls and antivirus software on all systems are updated frequently
Technical evaluations are performed on a routine basis
Affordable pricing: with 30 to 40% cost savings
Free billing analysis
Uses password protected lockers

Accurate medical billing services

The billing procedure begins when the patient enrolls for treatment and goes on till all his or her claims are settled by the insurance company .The billing procedure passes through several steps. Gastroenterologist medical billing services cover patient enrollment, insurance verification, coding, billing and reconciling of accounts, and accounts receivable collection.

To ensure error-free and HIPAA-compliant physician billing services, gastroenterology practices need to choose the right outsourcing company. Factors that must be considered when selecting a service provider are:

Secure file transfer modes such as FTP, browser-based or encrypted email
Customized billing solutions in client-specific turnaround time
Accuracy in claim processing and submission
Regular QA checking with readily available reports
Quick reimbursement
24-hour customer support service
Organization structure, technical equipment and capabilities, and administration procedures that are compliant with HIPAA privacy and security norms
Billing services at affordable rates

It is important to ensure that the company has an expert team on the job and wide experience in handling claim submission. This will ensure timely and maximum reimbursement. As there are many medical billing companies out there, it is important to do some online research to locate a service provider offering efficient HIPAA compliant physician billing services for gastroenterologists.
Author:mososi
Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

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