Can Medical Billing be Outsourced to a Virtual Assistant?

A dedicated medical billing virtual assistant takes over the critical administrative tasks that sap up countless hours yet prove essential to practice success. These remote revenue cycle experts have extensive training in insurance claim processing and credentialing workflows.

Expect a skilled virtual assistant to seamlessly manage responsibilities like charge entry, coding audits, patient billing and collections, denial management, claim tracking, reporting, prior authorizations, and overall revenue cycle optimizations. 

With deep expertise you lack on staff, a billing VA efficiently facilitates clean claim submissions to maximize collections. Whether you seek comprehensive billing administration or targeted headaches to offload like rejected claims or aged AR, the right VA helps recover lost hours and revenue.

This article will cover:

• The Power Behind Medical Billing Virtual Assistants
• What Tasks Can a Medical Billing Virtual Assistant Do For Me?
• Top Reasons Adding a Virtual Medical Biller Makes Sense
• Evaluating the Perfect Medical Billing Virtual Assistant

The Power Behind Medical Billing Virtual Assistants

These remote billing specialists serve as an extension of your back-office team. A dedicated assistant optimizes your revenue cycle performance just like an expert in-house employee would. Except they do it fully offsite for a fraction of the overhead costs.

What Tasks Can a Medical Billing Virtual Assistant Do For Me?

1. Charge capture - The assistant ensures all billable services get properly coded and entered into the billing system to generate claims. They ensure no charge lag occurs.
2. Coding audits - The assistant periodically reviews coder work quality and audits medical documentation to catch any coding discrepancies before claim submission.
3. Patient billing - The assistant handles patient statements, payment posting, managing aged accounts receivables, and facilitating patient questions about bills.
4. Denials management - When claims get denied, the assistant thoroughly investigates reasons, coordinates extra documentation needs, and handles resubmissions and appeals.
5. Reporting  -  The assistant runs reports on revenue cycle metrics like claims lag times, denial rates, days in A/R and more, communicating areas needing improvement.
6. Contract management - The assistant reviews payer contracts as needed, confirming proper fee schedules get loaded for claims submission. They also track key contract dates for renegotiation.
7. Credentialing - The assistant verifies providers have current credentials for network participation and handles recredentialing maintenance.
8. Prior authorizations - The assistant submits and follows up on prior authorizations to ensure services get pre-approved for maximum reimbursement.
9. Claim tracking -  The assistant closely tracks claims progress through the revenue cycle, escalating issues jeopardizing clean claim submission for each billing batch.
10. Revenue cycle optimization-  The assistant continually evaluates bottlenecks causing billing delays or revenue leakage, working closely with the practice to implement revenue cycle fixes.
11. Insurance Verification - Confirm patient coverage and plan details before visits
12. Claims Follow-Up - Monitor pending claims and appeal or refile rejected claims
13. Payment Processing - Post payments, adjustments to patient accounts
14. Revenue Cycle Analysis - Audits and reports to reduce practice revenue leakage
15. Outsource Collections - Send past due accounts to collections for unpaid balances
16. EHR Data Entry - Maintain practice management system records
17. Compliance Officer - Ensure adherence medical documentation guidelines
18. Front Office Duties - Provide customer service on billing inquiries via phone, email

Adding an experienced medical billing virtual assistant to handle these critical components of your revenue cycle can significantly maximize reimbursements and reduce administrative headaches. The right partner helps strengthen your back-end operations.

Top Reasons Adding a Virtual Medical Biller Makes Sense:

➡ ️ Frees up more patient care time: Assistants handle all billing tasks so staff focus on service delivery uninterrupted.

➡ Resolves claim submission headaches: Assistants have mastery over changing medical coding guidelines to prevent rejections.

➡ ️ Improves denial and collections outcomes: Assistants relentless pursue underpayments and appeal disputable denials for maximum reimbursement recouping earned revenue.

➡ Enhances revenue cycle transparency: Assistants run optimized reports so you diagnose and fix operational bottlenecks cramping cash flow.

➡ Offers customized level of support: Scale assistance to needs by offloading total billing or getting help only with problems like credentialing, authorizations, or auditing.

➡ Saves thousands over an in-house hire: Eliminate expenses from salary, benefits, payroll tax, HR, training while getting specialized support.

Evaluating the Perfect Medical Billing Virtual Assistant

An assistant's qualifications make all the difference between mediocre and monumental support.

Look for these must-have skills:

✅ Specialized medical billing training

✅ Multi-specialty coding mastery

✅ Fluency in ICD, CPT, HCPCS guidelines

✅ EMR platform proficiencies

✅ Accuracy and efficiency track record

✅ Minimum 5 years recent experience

✅ Up-to-date payer policy comprehension

✅ Superb communication abilities

Medical billing mishaps prove extremely costly. But the right assistant drives maximum reimbursements through clean claim submissions, relentless denial appeals, and optimized revenue cycle management.

Leverage Our Virtual Assistant Agency

Skip the headache of vetting candidates yourself. Our specialized virtual assistant agency helps practices like yours implement dedicated remote revenue cycle experts in just weeks.

We handle the entire hiring process from start to finish:

💡 Initial consultation and needs analysis

🔍 Rigorous candidate screening

💼 Customized matching

🚀 Hassle-free onboarding

Let us optimize your biggest operational bottleneck — medical billing and collections. Contact our team today for a free analysis to get paired with the perfect assistant for your success. Don’t let billing problems continue plaguing an otherwise healthy practice!