4 Tips To Market Your Medical Practice Online

Though, in an ever-increasingly “connected” world through social media and other online mediums, marketing your medical practice online can make or break your business. Businesses still relying on referrals alone are at risk to be left out in the dust. Information travels quickly online and the internet is the best place to constantly push that information to keep your name fresh in the ears of potential customers. Here are 5 things you should be doing to boost your clinic’s virtual presence.

1 – Use Instagram to Post Pictures
While any business can leverage Instagram to post relevant pictures, it’s especially useful for clinics that deal with highly demonstrable issues such as with orthopedicians and physical therapists. Instagram is a great place to post pictures that can show off your clinic or staff and let people know that you’re friendly and active in the community. In addition to that, consider that not everything you post needs to be directly related to your practice, social media is a great place to discuss issues in your community or current events. The Instagram algorithm favors accounts that post frequently such as 2-3 times a day, however even remaining consistent and posting once a day can go a long way in keeping yourself visible to help you market your medical practice online.

2 – Facebook Is A Great Place to Appear Relatable
Too many businesses end up being just that, another company that exchanges a service for money. With medical or mental health clinics, in particular, it’s important for patients to feel like they’re in good hands, or for prospective patients to see that there are people behind the company name. In other words, posting on Facebook should be friendly and casual. Use Facebook as a tool to show that your practice is full of ordinary people just like your patients, people who have a sense of humor, interests, and enthusiasm for what they do.

3 – Utilize YouTube to Instill Confidence
This one may require some time from some of the doctors who are willing but putting out informative YouTube videos that explain certain issues and discuss ongoing issues can be incredibly useful for instilling confidence in prospective patients. Everyone wants to feel like they’re in good hands, seeing this firsthand as your potential doctor explains how certain treatments are handled at the clinic may dramatically boost conversions for you. There is no shortage of viral videos of doctors, clinicians, and other wellness professionals such as physical therapists on YouTube in which they demonstrate how certain treatments are administered.

4 – Outsource Your Medical Coding/Billing To Free Up Time
All these tips will require time to execute. Clinics are very busy places, and doctors especially are very busy people. Having to worry about administrative work can be stifling. This is particularly true in the case of medical coding, where codes can change annually and if you don’t stay on top of them, it could cost you financially.

Marketing Your Medical Practice Online
The  Biller has years of expertise in boutique-style medical billing. We’ve helped many clinics and offices reduce their administrative bloat, streamline their workflows and thus save them money and time that can be applied to growing the practice. Our highly experienced staff are experts at the entire medical billing process, so that you can focus on marketing your medical practice online. They will:

Verify benefits PROMPTLY
Get authorization PRIOR to service
Submit CLEAN claims
Follow up on those claims
Call Better Mental Health Billing Utah to get the very best medical coding professionals at your disposal, so you can focus your time and effort on the things that matter: your patients.

3 Benefits of Outsourced Mental Health Billing

The diagnosis of mental health issues is constantly changing and experiencing a major uptick in recorded diagnoses. One might be tempted to think that mental health issues are on the rise—and they are in some categories, but overall more people are embracing the idea of mental illness being much like any other ailment of the body. This destigmatizing of mental health has seen to it that mental health clinics are busier than ever. This leads us to the first point of our 3 benefits for outsourcing mental health billing.

Outsourced Mental Health Billing Saves Time
You know the old saying, “haste makes waste”, it’s especially true when it comes to doing paperwork. All the time you spend filling out forms and handling administrative work are essentially wasted when slight mistakes cause the claims to be denied or require correction. If you know anything about administrative work—especially paperwork involving insurance claims, any delay or resubmission can cost weeks of time in back and forth. All the while, the clinic is not being paid for the service that was covered by the patient’s insurance.

Letting Professionals Handle it Reduces Mistakes
Medical professionals lead busy lives, and as a result, clinics can be hectic places with many patients coming in and out with much to do and keep track of. It can be frustrating to deal with interruptions that keep popping up while you attempt to focus on the mundane details of paperwork. These constant disruptions can also lead to mistakes in billing. Remote mental health billing professionals won’t have this issue, their main job is to focus on doing remote medical billing and administrative/customer service work for your office if you require that as well.

Remote Mental Health Billing Saves Time
Mental health diagnoses are changing every year, it’s not concrete enough to simply state that a patient has depression or anxiety, a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist is always trying to nail down the specifics of someone’s particular mental health issues. This need for specificity is translated into the mental health billing codes, which also ask for more than just a standard diagnosis. There are several codes that signify subtypes of a major overarching term like depression or anxiety.

Because outsourcing this work to remote mental health billing professionals saves a great deal of time, it allows the staff of an office to focus more on the clients—as well as allows more clients to be interacted with. Removing the stress and worry about handling this important paperwork so the office can receive payment for services tendered will go a long way in letting clinicians focus all of their energy on treating patients and accurately diagnosing them so that the proper codes can be used.

Outsourced Mental Health Billing Professionals
The Better Mental Health Billing Utah can provide your office with the professional remote mental health billing it needs! We’ve had years of experience billing for mental health and medical professionals as well as small businesses. Our highly trained staff are dependable, discreet, and most importantly diligent in their work.

A Cautionary Tale of How Improper Billing is Costly

Medical coding is an everchanging landscape. New technologies emerge and new ways to classify different procedures and categories of illness are common. As such, year-to-year, professional medical coders and billers should always be on the lookout for changes in the terminology and technical codes, as repeatedly inputting the wrong codes or billing errors can and will lead to rejected claims, lost money, and lost work efficiency as well.

False Coding vs Billing Fraud
An important thing to remember is that it is expected, as per the law, that people make mistakes. Making billing or coding errors may cost you in fines, but they do not constitute fraud…unless they keep happening. A Medical billing fraud charge can be levied on a business should they continually make the same improper coding errors. That is to say, even if fraud was not willfully committed, after a certain point, continual errors may warrant a payout for fraud damages. The intent is irrelevant when it costs the system millions of dollars per year if businesses are not stringent about their billing/coding standards.

A Cautionary Tale About Improper Medical Billing
Just last month in September, a doctor and physician practice in PA were fined $178,000 due to false coding claims. That kind of fine could sink a business with less than favorable margins, in other words, it’s nothing to shake your head at!

Richard P. Frey and the Physicians Alliance (PAL) were fined to resolve liabilities regarding the False Claims Act which was invoked due to the improper billing of what are called “P-Stim” devices. These devices are an electronic acupuncture device that is placed behind the patient’s ear and attached using a simple adhesive. As the name suggests, it provides intermittent electronic stimulation through electronic pulses.

As you might imagine, Medicare does not cover this procedure.

The problem? Frey and PAL either themselves or authorized their medical billing team to bill the procedure as the implanting of neurostimulator electrodes, which is a costly surgery that requires a person to go under the knife—so to speak.

Interestingly enough, the improper billing occurred in 2013-2014, respectively. Consider that 5 years later, they are now paying the price for those mistakes. Suffice it to say, this is an egregious example of false medical billing as well as an example of how detrimental to your practice it can be. This should encourage any practice or office to outsource their medical billing/coding needs to professional medical billers and coders. What may seem like an investment to you now will reap dividends down the line when the lack of errors and rejected claims ends up saving you money and time!

Professional Remote Medical Biller
When Maureen R. Dixon, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, was asked about the situation. She replied, “Accurately billing for services provided to Medicare beneficiaries is required of all health care providers.”

We at Better Mental Health Billing Utah couldn’t agree more, it’s our business to make sure your medical business runs smoothly. Contact us here today to be on your way to less rejected claims, better profits, and more free time to spend tending to your business rather than paperwork!

What is HIPAA Compliance and Why is It Important?

How Is HIPAA Compliance Defined?
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA was first enacted in 1996. At its core, the act is centered around patient data protection. Any company that details with patient data, whether that be medical charts, EHR, or information pertaining to medications taken or illnesses suffered, is liable for keeping that information reasonably safe. Medical coders and billers are also bound by the responsibility of keeping compliance with HIPAA.

In other words, any party that comes into contact with patient information or data must in some way or another, be responsible along the chain for keeping the privacy and integrity of that information. As the medical industry, as well as insurance companies, continue to take their data storage and practices online, there is an increasing need to make sure that information is protected.

As such, HIPAA compliance requirements have tightened over the years as, despite the convenience of internet and software services, it is clear that many companies have not sought out safer and more secure methods of storage as compared to the old days of locking away papers in a file cabinet. While these online services make the day to day operations of insurance companies and doctor’s offices considerably quicker—you can get a blood test and look up lab results within a day or two in many cases, it also means that there is a much larger digital footprint.

Because we are still in a transitionary period in which many companies have only recently have become primarily online based, it means not all companies are well equipped to deal with data breaches and hack attempts.

HIPAA Rules
HIPAA Privacy Rule – The HIPAA privacy rule exists to protect an individual’s medical records as well as any other personal health information. The rule works by charging those who deal with patient information directly to be responsible for the information. In other words, the data must be kept private and must not be used for any commercial purposes. It is a well-known fact that data analysis has become a necessary service for almost any type of business. As such, information pertaining to people is highly valuable but presents a conflict of interest if sold. The privacy rule is highly important, consider this case of UCLA hospitals being fined $865,000 for not properly protecting medical records.
HIPAA Security Rule- The HIPAA Security rule is one that enforces the security of the maintenance, transmission, and handling of ePHI (electronic private health information). The security rule details the standards and expectations of security regarding these methods of information dispersal. Staff members who deal with this information must be refreshed annually.
HIPAA Breach Notification Rule – This rule is fairly straightforward, if you or a company you are a part of become aware of a breach of data regarding PHI or ePHI, you must report the breach to the HHS OCR—the Office of Civil Rights.
HIPAA Compliant Remote Medical Billing
Are you looking to save time and money? Outsource your medical billing today! The Better Mental Health Billing Utah offers a full-time remote billing solution for your businesses’ needs. Time spent on paperwork is time not spent on nurturing your business and interacting with your clientele. We are proud to offer a highly cost-effective HIPAA compliant billing records and communications that will satisfy the aforementioned rules and regulations!