Here Are Some Essential Tips and Guidelines to Help You Understand Oncology Medical Billing
When it comes to medical billing, Oncology practices face a lot of challenges just like any other specialty. What makes efficient billing processes crucial in Oncology is its constantly evolving regulations and the complex nature of treatments in Oncology.
Oncology medical billing involves submitting claims to insurance companies or any other payers for oncology-related billing services. There is an entire process that involves verifying the patient’s coverage, correct documentation of medical history, accurate and timely submission of medical billing claims. The entire process must be carried out ensuring compliance with rules and regulations. To run a successful Oncology practice, it is crucial to stay updated regarding evolving medical codes of the practice.
What is Oncology Medical Billing?
Oncology medical billing is a detailed process that involves precise coding and documentation. This is done to ensure that healthcare organizations receive appropriate reimbursements for the cancer treatment they impart to their patients.Oncology is a specialized branch of medical billing which takes into account the unique challenges that come with treating cancer patients. This includes the use of costly diagnostic tests,radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
To carry out the process of Medical Billing precisely, it is essential to have a deep understanding of billing codes and medical terminology. The billing team must have a commitment to stay updated with the changing guidelines in insurance policies and procedures. The best solution to get your healthcare facility is an expert medical billing service provider that dedicatedly takes care of your billing requirements.
Importance of Accurate Billing in Oncology Practices
Importance of accurate billing in Oncology practices is not just limited to administrative purposes, it is also important to ensure patient satisfaction and the quality of services they receive. There is a growing influence on value-based care, in this case, there is a possibility of coding errors that can result in denied claims. This ultimately impacts the financial sustainability of the practice.
Following points highlight the importance of accurate billing in Oncology Practices:
Ensures Proper Reimbursements
The foremost reason behind the importance of medical coding and billing for healthcare providers is that it ensures proper reimbursement and efficient healthcare delivery. If the coding is not properly focused there are chances that it can lead to financial losses for both healthcare providers and insurance companies.
Improves Patient Care
The purpose of medical coding and billing is to track patient care and their medical services. When the coding process is accurately carried out, it ensures that healthcare providers provide the best possible care to their patients. A proper coding process helps to identify different patterns in patient care which helps them to make informed decisions regarding treatments and payments.
Helps Prevent Fraud and Abuse
One of the biggest reasons for financial losses for healthcare providers or insurance companies is fraudulent billing practices. This ultimately impacts patient care. Therefore, it is crucial that medical coding is done correctly to ensure that medical services are billed in an accurate manner. When the process of coding is accurately carried out, it reduces the chances of fraudulent billing practices.
Fraudulent practices include upcoding or unbundling. When the process of coding and billing is carried out precisely, it ensures that services are billed according to industry standards and rules which reduces the chances of fraudulentactivities within healthcare.
Ensures Compliance with Regulations
Different medical codes in healthcare facilities are subject to compliance and regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to keep up with the changing rules and regulations. When the process of coding is carried out precisely, it ensures compliance with these regulations, reducing the likelihood of legal action against healthcare providers or insurance companies.
Oncology Billing Codes: Understanding the Basics
A variety of codes are used in Oncology medical billing to carry out the process. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) are codes used while describing medical procedures and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes are used in case of detailed diagnoses.
To get paid for the services you rendered, it is important to ensure accurate coding. Let’s understand this with a few CPT codes and their meaning:
77261–77299 — The work that goes into planning and doing radiation therapy, which involves creating a personalized treatment plan and ensuring that the radiation delivery is to the right body area.
77600–77615 — Radiation therapy involving hyperthermia. This involves using both radiation and heat to treat cancerous tumors
96401–96417 — The administration of chemotherapy and other complex drugsthrough injection or intravenous infusion
Verifying insurance coverage and benefits is very important in the oncology medical billing process.It becomes even more complicated when the specialty includes other specialties too.
Oncology Billing Workflow Steps
Going through the complex world of oncology billing may seem daunting in the beginning, but once you understand all the steps of the entire workflow, you will get the confidence to approach the cycle.
Insurance Eligibility:
The first step is to verify insurance coverage and do pre-authorization to confirm the patient’s health plan covers treatments and possible payments. It is important to monitor changes in the insurance.
Capturing Every Charge:
The next step is to accurately document all the services in Oncology billing. This includes ICD and CPT codes and modifiers. To avoid revenue loss, timely capture of all charges and missed or lost payments is prevented.
Submitting Claims:
Now, all the claims are presented to the insurance company for the payment. Before submitting the claims, it is confirmed that they are accurate, complete, and delivered promptly to avoid any delays. Make sure to review any rejections, appealing if necessary.
Receiving Compensation
When the insurance claim is processed and submitted to the insurance company in a correct manner, the medical practice will receive compensation for the same. One thing that has to be taken care of is monitoring expenses, addressing outstanding balances, and maintaining accurate financial records while staying up to date on reimbursement rate changes is important.
Proper Data Reporting
The final step is to record critical metrics related to the billing oncology process. It includes tracking revenue, accounts receivable, and any kind of denials and rejections.
Challenges of Oncology Medical Billing
As Oncology includes preventing and treating cancer, it is a complicated and completely drawn-out process. This means to receive payment; the oncology billing procedure necessitates detailed medical treatment documentation and an immediate follow-up with insurance companies.
Here are the most common challenges in Oncology Medical Billing
Incomplete Claims
One of the most typical problems in the medical billing process is the submission of erroneous claims. The error can be in basic details including the patient’s full name, gender, date of birth, and the time of the accident or medical emergency fall under this.
Using the Right Codes
Unlike other medical specialties, oncology practices have various coding standards. One difficulty that can arise here is finding the appropriate codes to use to avoid errors. Also, an insurance company, on the other hand, won’t approve a claim if the codes are not properly mentioned. Claims may be disputed repeatedly until the biller and the payer end up having an agreement.
Ineligible for insurance coverage
In casean existing patient’s insurance coverage has changed and your patient records have not been updated, the insurance company is likely to reject the claim. This is frequently the result of uncontrolled coverage of existing patients.
Lack of thoroughness
One thing to take care of while submitting oncology claims to the insurance service providers is that they should have a detailed knowledge of all the codes and modifiers used. When the claims are processed, coding professionals use codes for procedures that are almost identical to each other. Therefore, it is important that additional details are added to support each code applied. In this way, it becomes easier for the payer to ask the oncology practice numerous questions before approving the claims.
Tips for Streamlining Oncology Medical Billing
Carrying out every step of Oncology Medical Billing can be a quite daunting task. Help yourself with these tips to streamline Oncology medical billing process
Proper Understanding of the Coding System
By attending seminars, reading industry publications, and training with organizations like AAPC, healthcare professionals can improve their understanding of oncology coding. What is even more helpful is working closely with medical billing professionals. It helps because they have specialized knowledge in ever-changing coding and billing processes. They can give the right guidance on best practices in coding, identify areas for improvement, and offer training and support as required.
Verification of Insurance Coverage
The next important tip to consider is to contact the insurance company in the first place or you can use an online verification system. This is done to understand the patient’s benefits, co-pays, and deductibles and to avoid any surprises or unexpected expenses for the patient. All the issues should be addressed before the patient’s visit.
Accurate Documentation
When the information about the patients is incomplete or wrong, it can lead to claim rejections or interruptions in the revenue cycle. This results in a loss of revenue for oncology practices. Therefore, it is important to ensure that precise documentation is recorded in the patient’s electronic health record (EHR) system, which includes the patient’s medical history.
Submit the medical claims timely
If the claims are not timely submitted, it can result in compensation delays and even denials. Insurance companies typically have strict deadlines when it comes to accepting claims. This means that missing these targets can cause significant economic loss to the healthcare organization.
In this case, providers can ensure that claims are accepted promptly, and a proper claim tracking system is implemented that takes care of submission deadlines.
Hire a Professional Medical Billing Partner
It is not an easy task to maintain an invoicing in-house team for healthcare providers. This is even more difficult, especially for small healthcare providers with limited resources. The smart solution is to outsource the administrative burden to a professional medical coding and billing company. Their oncology billing specialists are updated on in the latest billing regulations and technology and are able to handle all the aspects of your Oncology practice.
