Starting a Medical Billing Company

If you want to know how to start a medical billing company, look no further. Consider this blog the first step for what you need to know to get you on your feet. It may take a while, but resources are available to help you.

What Do You Like To Do?

The field of medical billing has a number of givens. You’ll need to be aware of them and know that these are the kinds of things that you want to do. Getting the right job starts with your personality first. So, do you like:

• Data Entry
• Sifting through information
• Talking with clients
• Problem solving

Then medical billing could be right for you.

Education

You’ll need training and certification to engage in medical coding. The minimum educational requirement is a high school diploma or its equivalent. Additionally, you’ll need to be service minded. You’ll be coordinating between clients – doctor’s offices and patients. One way to get ready for such a role is to take a medical billing course. These are available at community colleges and even for free online. Another great idea is to go for a business certificate or a degree. These will help you a lot as you establish and run your own company.

Credit

As you’ll be dealing with the money of many people, it’s a great idea to have a clean credit score. This is its own subject, but the road to clean credit starts with smart spending habits and paying off your debts.

Target Clients

As you consider who are the practitioners that you’d like to approach for business, think first about your network. If you’ve already worked in medical billing or healthcare, you have a built in pool of candidates who you can at least speak with for new leads, and at best solicit for business. Consider the following groups:

• Family practitioner
• Specialty providers such as pediatrics, obstetricians, geriatrics, oncologists, radiologists and osteopaths to name just some
• Mental Health practitioners – psychiatrists, psychologists
• Dentists
• Pharmacists
• Social Workers
• Home Health Care Doctors
• Nursing Homes
• Ambulance service companies
• Medical Equipment Makers

How Not to Get Overwhelmed

Identify the practice areas you’d like to focus on, so you’ll get used to their coding and specializations. Different specialties charge varying amounts. The oncologist is going to have fewer patients and a higher bill. The chiropractor is going to have a more patients, because she is charging significantly less. The more patients…the more work for you.

Declaring Your Focus

You can decide to undertake full blown practice management, which includes tracking accounts receivable (AR) and electronic health records submissions for payment. On the other hand, you can simply focus on a single aspect of the process, such as submitting claims to insurance companies. It helps to be flexible. Whatever direction that you choose, you’ll be starting on the right foot if you start with the right technology. Medical billing software, like PracticeAdmin’s package of advanced scheduling and account receivable applications, can help billers of every size provide the most for their clients, and get back the highest return.