Medical billers are essential to any company that cares about its employees and customers. While their jobs vary from company to company, a medical biller's job description and skills are straightforward. Most of them help the businesses they work for by analyzing employees' medical status and deciphering if they are entitled to full coverage.
In this article, you will learn what aspects include a medical biller's job description and will also find a solution to spend less on a medical biller in the last part of the blog post. But before getting into the fundamental tasks these professionals do, you must first have an accurate definition of a medical biller.
Medical Biller
According to Indeed, medical billers work in healthcare settings to manage incoming and outgoing payments for medical treatment. Their role is to communicate with patients about their outstanding balance and handle the administrative responsibilities of billing insurance and processing payments.
While this definition may seem vague, it describes precisely what a medical biller does. Medical billers are responsible for submitting medical claims to insurance companies. After these declarations are submitted, insurance companies take care of the employee through their health-related problems until they feel fine to go back to work.
Medical Biller Job Description
There are a lot of tasks that a medical biller can do in a company. And, as businesses grow, the duties for these professionals increase. But, as we mentioned before, these tasks are different between companies. Below, you will find a list of the most common assignments a medical biller has.
Check eligibility and benefits for treatments, procedures, and hospitalizations
Obtain referrals as required
Provide follow-ups for unpaid claims within a billing cycle
Review patient bills and obtain any additional information
Use of billing software
Contact insurance companies regarding any differences in payments
Check insurance payments and comply with contract discounts
Identify and bill for secondary and tertiary insurances
Contact the accounting department during any insurance discrepancies
Research and appeal denied claims
Set up patient payment plans and work collection accounts
Keep updated any billing software they use and manage
Perform collection reports
As you can see, the tasks of a medical biller include a lot of reports and balancing numbers, meaning they also need to have any previous accounting or bookkeeping experience. If you are having trouble understanding what a medical biller does, just think of it as a mix of an accountant and a lawyer dedicated to providing your employees the best health insurance they can receive.
While not much is needed to become a medical biller, accounting, office skills, and the right software make these professionals' jobs easier. Screening for a candidate who can perform all of these tasks for a low price is hard to encounter. This reason is why virtual medical billers were created.
Virtual Medical Billers
Virtual medical billers are experts who work independently for several health-related enterprises or work for a virtual agency that offers virtual assistant services. Like virtual assistants, they only charge for their work and have the perfect skills for your company to take care of their employees and customers. In the list below, you will find a few of the skills that virtual medical billers have.
Multitasking
Maintaining patient confidentiality
Knowledge in bookkeeping procedures
Active listening and empathy
Customer service
Problem-solving
Communications abilities with insurance companies and payers
CPT and ICD-10 coding
Knowledge of insurance guidelines such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other requirements and systems
Denial management
Payment posting and reconciliation
Performing daily, weekly, and monthly reports
Virtual Assistants as Medical Billers
If you are in need of a medical biller for your company, you would want to consider hiring a virtual medical biller instead. In addition, if you are performing all of these tasks on your own, a virtual medical biller can help you automatize specific processes. At the same time, you take care of more important duties, like getting more clients or designing marketing campaigns to expand your business.
It is imperative that you do your research before hiring any virtual medical biller. But, if you already have done your research and would like to hire one, you can Schedule a Free Consultation with us. Our expert medical billers are eager to help your company and are ready to work from the minute you hire our services. In your consultation, you can ask all of the medical billing questions you need to resolve, and we will assign the perfect virtual assistant to fit your needs.