There is a difference between billing companies and collection agencies, and anesthesia practices should know the difference in order to set appropriate expectations, according to an Aug. 14 blog post from Rita Astani, president of anesthesia for Coronis Health.
The objective of a billing company is to deliver an appropriate claim to a payer in a timely and accurate manner. Clients pay for a team of specialists qualified to identify changes for billing and submit claims to each patient's insurance.
This can be difficult for billing companies to achieve 100 percent of the time. Large companies have spent years investing in software and refining their processes to optimize clients' cash flow.
While in an ideal world collection agencies in anesthesia would be unnecessary, they are needed due to myriad factors, including incorrectly reported hospital and patient information, insurance companies denying valid claims and patients with overdue bills ignoring collectors.
The biggest challenge for anesthesia practices is the number of uninsured patients. It is easier to collect from a commercial payer than from an individual. When dealing directly with patients, anesthesia providers have little to no leverage for collecting payment.
While the work of a billing company is labor extensive, the work of a collection agency is labor intensive, leading them to charge substantially higher rates, Ms. Astani wrote. A collection agency's fees cover the costs of exploring alternative strategies to motivate patients to pay outstanding bills.
Successful collection agencies draw on three strategies. First, they have a team who spends every day making patient phone calls. Second, they have access to hospital accounts, giving them alternative approaches to contact patients. Third, they use legal resources to leverage patients.
Collection agencies should be a last resort for anesthesia providers, not a normal approach to billing. Billing companies should be able to collect more than 90 percent of what is owed. Collection agencies rarely collect 30 percent of what is referred to them.