Q. How long does it take to implement medical billing into my office, and do I need to hire another staff member to handle the process?
A. The initial start-up accreditation/contracting phase can take weeks, or up to 6 months depending on the insurance and level of enrollment. Government contracts tend to take the longest, 4-6 months on average, to become contracted providers. Once you are properly enrolled with insurance, documentation and dictation will determine how likely the claim will get paid, or flagged for review.
There is a bit of a learning curve here as most general dentists are not accustomed to writing clinical exam or surgical notes for medical necessity. Any denials, appeals or reworking of notes delay payments. Having the doctor involved, or having a specialist assigned to this role increases the success rate immensely. Hiring a medical billing specialist is recommended, but not required. Medical billing is not an easy task for one person to handle, but if the office takes a team approach it can easily be implemented without too much burden. Starting with a focus on a single procedure type and then expanding into other, or more complicated procedures seems to work best for most offices. If your office is adding a new procedure (such as Sleep Apnea Treatment) into the office and assigns a specialist to handle these cases, then we recommend this person also handle the majority of the billing. JA
