Ethical or not companies all over the country have been known to outsource their work offshore. The reason is simple: it’s cheaper. But I urge medical practices not to follow suit when it comes to their medical billing. Here’s why:
1.Offshore workers are less trained.
This point is so important. Yes offshore workers come at a cheaper price, but it is very likely they also come with less training. The intricacies of outsourced medical billing are immense. Do you really want to hire someone with less experience to do the job? As everyone knows less experience can easily lead to a job poorly done.
2.No direct supervision of offshore operations.
How can things like patient data entry, payment organizations, and account follow-ups be done efficiently when the company is in another time zone? And how can they be directly supervised or reviewed by you? This is an example of how sending work overseas causes more problems. Once medical billing outsourcing is being handled overseas, it’s completely out of your hands. Without direct supervision you won’t be left with the comfort of knowing that experienced professionals are taking care of you. And that’s the problem.
3.Is offshore outsourcing legal?
The short answer is yes. But the long answer is a little more tricky. Medical outsourcing offshore raises many questions about HIPAA compliancy, confidentiality, and legal concerns. What if something goes terribly wrong? Are you prepared to deal with foreign courts? While offshore outsourcing can be appealing when you see the price, it may not be worth it if the worst case scenario becomes your reality.
Those are just a few of the many reasons why you should not outsource your medical billing overseas. You may be now asking yourself how to know if a particular medical billing company completes some of their work overseas. It’s easy: you need to ask them. PhyLogic, a company that has been providing outsourced medical billing for the last twelve years, states directly on their website that they do not partake in any overseas outsourced billing. Now, how does that sound to you?
