Is Your Mental Health Therapy Practice Audit-Ready?

‘Mental health service providers are always busy offering quality care and treatments to their clients. Sometimes, they compromise on their billing and claim submission to provide quality treatments to their clients, which hampers their practice in the long run.

Mental Health Service

The right care is necessary to keep your clients healthy. Similarly, a good mental health billing partner is required to keep your practice healthy. Punctures in mental health’s coding and billing lead to improper claim submission resulting in rejections and denials. Mental health service providers should consider outsourcing mental health’s billing services as it will save massive efforts and give them more time to provide care to the clients and grow their practice.

Mental health billing is complex due to the various steps involved while submitting a claim. Behavioral and mental health billers must be highly skilled in understanding complex codes and modifiers and should know all the regulations to stay in compliance. There are multiple behavioral & mental health’s billing service providers in the market, and choosing the right partner depends on your need. But before choosing mental health’s billing service provider, consider these top 5 factors.

Services Offered

Mental health billing is not restricted to adding codes and submitting claims to insurance payers. It involves many steps that need to be followed to get full reimbursement for the services offered. Companies that offer behavioral health billing provide end-to-end RCM solutions, and not all the services might be currently necessary for you. Answer the following questions to know what kind of services you need from the RCM partner.

• What is the end goal of partnering with a mental health billing provider?
• What is the specialization of the company you are considering partnering with?
• Can the company cater to your requirements?
• Are the benefits, time, and efforts aligned with your needs?

You should know the services of mental health billing companies before partnering with them. If you get answers to all these questions, you can partner with the company that meets your expectations.

Cost

Hiring a highly skilled and experienced team in-house could be expensive. It demands a lot of time, effort, and cost investment. You should create a coding budget and partner with a firm that can provide you with the services within your budget. A few services could increase the cost of your billing and coding services. You should clarify the charges with the service providers the price before you start leveraging services from them.

Transparency

Timely and prompt decision-making is essential at the time of claim submission. But this does not mean the mental health billing company can make decisions without taking prior approvals from you. Mental health care providers should look for a transparent billing company while filling and submitting the claim. You do not need to micromanage any of the activities. All you need is to stay aware of the processes followed by the billing company. You should know the claim’s status and the reasons for delay or denial. A reliable mental and behavioral health billing partner will provide you detailed reports on the progress regularly and will take feedback on the new changes recommended to avoid denials.

Security

Mental health billing is all about secure information and involves colossal revenue. If there is a minute security breach, it will lead to a huge money loss to the practice. Patient privacy is also a big concern for mental health’s care providers. Patients trust you with sensitive information, and their faith in you is essential. You should always search HIPPA-compliant companies as they will always provide high security and data protection to your practice. You should also stay compliant with government rules and regulations.

Credentials

A strong recommendation from your fellow practice is convincing enough to partner with a mental and behavioral health billing service provider. But it is vital to verify all the company details, background, their numbers before deciding. Search whether the company complies with HIPPA, state, and federal regulations. Search for the answers to the following questions:

• Does the mental health service provider do a self-audit?
• What does the company do to educate its employees regularly?
• Are the employees updated with current rules, regulations, and updates?

Your mental health billing partner should be capable of guiding financial and process development decision-making for the betterment of your practice.

A mental health coding and billing provider is like a dedicated business partner who will make efforts to grow your practice like you do, ensuring your practice’s success. When you trust a third-party mental health’s billing provider with sensitive information, you make them an integral part of your practice. The decision could impact your practice significantly, and you should take utmost care before taking a final call.

Author Bio:

Brian Adams holds a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences. As a medical writer, he has been writing for behavioral and mental health billing and giving suggestions to pharmaceuticals, healthcare agencies, hospitals, health tech firms, and healthcare communication agencies. He brings seven years of exposure.