Community health center billing for FQHC and CHC

No matter the size of your health center, the people in charge of getting everyone paid have a key role.  Some centers opt to handle this in-house, but many outsource their medical billing to a physician billing service.  These medical billing companies typically range in size and specialty.  It is critically important to select the right medical billing company for your business. Community health centers face a number of unique billing challenges, such as accepting minimum payments, sliding fee schedules and payment plans.  Sometimes care is offered at little or no cost.  Your billing company must firmiliar with these situations. 

Practice management companies. These are larger firms, usually with over 100 employees.  They may also manage more than billing for their for-profit clients-including marketing, scheduling, and staffing. This may be a pro for your business, but they may not place their emphasis on collecting your money.  When it comes to FQHC's, we find these additional tasks best performed by our qualified FQHC partners on a local level.  At Synergy Billing Solutions, our focus is always on revenue maximization.

Home-based billing companies. These small businesses often consist of a single employee or small group working from home. They vary widely in quality and experience.  The smaller ones often only take one or two clients, which ensures that your medical billing firm will be very focused on your needs. Cons include a lack of ability to provide more sophisticated services due to lack of resources, and possible disruptions in billing if your single-employee provider takes a week off. Because of the high-volume nature of CHC's, home-based companies are employed less frequently.

Professional medical billing firms. These mid-sized firms tend to be more flexible than the larger options, with more available resources than home-based billers. They typically have a dozen or more employees, with the capability to cover your account if one of their employees goes on vacation. These firms often provide specialty coverages, such as Synergy, which specializes in Community Health Center Billing.

When you are choosing a medical billing firm for your business, you should make sure that the firm or individual you are hiring offers the following basic services:

Claim generation. This entails transcribing patient records including demographics, insurance information, and medical information into software used for medical billing. Claim submission, which should be included, involves submitting the information to the insurance carrier either via paper or electronic submission. Although this can be done with software, it should be thoroughly checked for mistakes by a professional, because revenue is at stake and errors are common.

Follow-up with the insurance company. Your medical billing service should be experienced in chasing down non-paying accounts and ensuring that they pay. Follow-up is a necessary part of any successful health center practice, as there can often be delays or problems with carriers. 

Practice reports. An experienced and qualified medical billing company should be able to generate reports on the fiscal health of your practice monthly, with suggestions on how to improve efficiency.

Invoicing and customer support. Your medical billing company should be able to send invoices and statements to patients and to handle questions about bills when your patients have them. 

The Synergy Billing Solutions Difference:

A medical billing firm is an essential partner for any community health center, underserved area or rural.  While there may be many companies that offer medical billing services, Synergy stands out as the clear leader for Community Health Centers. We take health center integration to a new level.  Our software engineers are experts on the most common and cutting edge practice management applications for Health Centers, and our billing staff have both countless years of health center billing experience, and a rigorous course of continuing education to ensure proper security and efficacy.