Electronic Medical Billing System Vs. Traditional Billing System- Which Offers the Best ROI

Technology in healthcare is growing by leaps and bounds. Services as solutions like mHealth, electronic health records, patient engagement systems, and more are improving the healthcare industry today. Interestingly, providers also are investing in custom healthcare solutions that cater to their practice needs.    

In integrated healthcare systems, billing and coding tasks are also automated. Today, hospitals use electronic medical billing systems rather than traditional/manual billing. Undoubtedly, an electronic medical billing system offers plenty of benefits. Moreover, the processing and payment collection is faster and seamless. And this impacts the return on investment for the care providers.   

At OSP, one U.S-based client approached us with the challenge of replacing paper-based billing and claim management system. Using the traditional billing and claim management system, this client was facing multiple challenges. It wanted to deploy an automated billing system to manage its workflow and claims/reimbursements. So, we came up with a few solutions-   

With these solutions, the client organization managed to turn their paper-based system into a fully automated, electronic medical billing and claims management. It saved their additional IT support expenses and boosted the ROI.   

Key Areas in Electronic Medical Billing System That Impacts ROI

Return on Investment on implementing electronic medical billing systems is possible for a few reasons. There is no doubt that the electronic medical billing system helps providers improve their workflow efficiencies and reduce revenue loss. Here are some of the electronic medical billing system areas that boost ROI.   

1. Workflow Automation

There are plenty of steps to process a bill or claim in a typical billing environment. Manually, this process will take weeks. But handling this process through electronic medical billing can improve the workflow. Providers need not worry about missing out on essential things or information. The medical billing system will become more efficient with workflow automation and positively impacts the ROI. It’s perfectly ideal healthcare providers solutions that benefit integrated care management too.

2. EOB management

Managing paper-based EOB is still a challenging area. It requires complete automation to speed up the remaining documentation. Besides, providers are using electronic EOB often struggle to process and maintain the accuracy of the remaining documents. EOB data management helps providers find individual transactions based on patients’ names, claim numbers, and date of service. Moreover, the time taken to find and retrieve one EOB is hardly 15 seconds. This, too, saves additional expenses of providers boosting up the ROI. Providers can use cloud computing for medical billing solutions and EOB management in healthcare. Besides, providers can also resort to clinical data analysis to find accurate information.

3. Efficiency in Claim/reimbursement Processing

Medical billing management success depends greatly on claims processing efficiency. If the medical billing system software is integrated with EHR/EMR, electronic data exchanges help providers’ process bill payments and claims much faster. Moreover, everything is digital, saving time and costs related to managing claim denials and delays. Efficiencies in claim processing will also impact the providers’ ROI and overall revenue. Besides, providers can even deploy clinical informatics solutions or medical records management to handle the claims and reimbursement data in the medical billing system.

4. Space Efficiencies

Space efficiencies are another area in the electronic billing system that can boost ROI. Unlike traditional billing systems, medical billing software doesn’t require physical space to store documents. And digital documentation in medical billing software systems eliminates the cost of storage space in the hospital. So, providers need to retrieve the data whenever required from the system. This optimizes the ROI of the hospital, boosting the revenue of providers.

5. Administrative Efficiencies

One of the major impacts that traditional medical billing system has is an administrative burden. Hospital staff, including billers and coders, is stressed with unending administrative work. However, hospital billing systems automate administrative workflows. And efficiencies in administrative tasks mean more savings and better ROI.

How to Successfully Implement Electronic Medical Billing System?

Now that you understand how the electronic medical billing system improves and is best for the providers’ ROI. Implement electronic medical billing system successfully through these steps-   

1. Planning the implementation

As a provider, planning is a must if you’re transitioning from a manual system to electronic medical billing. Form a checklist of immediate goals and potential outcomes, identify the stakeholders involved, and make a timeline for the implementation project- follow these to implement electronic patient billing systems successfully.

2. Workflow adaption

When deploying new billing software, providers must document and analyze the existing billing workflows. It’s important to avoid errors during migration and in future bill processing.

3. Budgeting

This step is important to providers, especially if they are concerned about the ROI. Planning and budgeting go hand-in-hand whenever implementing a new health software. So, providers need to identify possible project costs and create a budget plan for stakeholders. Budget revisions and upgrades are common but making a provisional one is essential. This even helps providers understand the return on Investment.

4. Communicating internally with the workforce

Implementing electronic billing in hospitals requires effective communication among the internal workforce. The entire team engagement is essential for the success of the software. Moreover, each staff through internal communication, will understand their responsibilities better.

5. Analyze and choose vendor

Healthcare providers interested in deploying electronic billing systems can choose an ideal vendor. Choosing the right vendor is as important as the software. When choosing a vendor, adequate research, gathering reviews from peers, and negotiating proposals and contracts are all critical points to consider.

6. Implementation and compliance

The last two steps involve security compliance and implementation. Ensuring HIPAA compliance is a must for the healthcare billing software, as it assures providers and users of its safety. And once the specific electronic medical billing system is selected, it’s time for implementation. Providers need to collect existing data and migrate to the new system. Also, update the workflows, test the system, train users, and the final run. Just ensure seamless healthcare interoperability in the systems to transfer the previous patient data effectively.

Conclusion

In comparison to manual billing systems, electronic medical billing ensures a myriad of benefits that eventually boosts providers’ ROI. Nonetheless, medical billing software in hospitals assures faster processing, more savings, efficient workflows, and effective management of EOB. Moreover, some leaders also point out that EHR/EMR integrated electronic medical billing system also improves population health management. This is todays’ evolving practice that, combined with other digital solutions, will increase ROI, patient satisfaction, and providers’ financial performance. Just proper planning and execution are the most critical steps for an electronic medical billing system.