Durable Medical Billing Among the Best Home Business Ideas and Opportunities
What is Durable Medical Billing?
Durable medical equipment (DME) includes wheelchairs, crutches, incontinence products, breathing machines, gloves and hundreds of other items that doctors use to treat patients. Healthcare facilities and doctors often find it difficult to bill for durable medical equipment, not to mention handling the hundreds of insurance codes necessary to make sure that a patient’s insurance will pay for the equipment. So often they will hire someone to handle the billing and coding for them. That’s why a home-based medical billing business can make a good profit.
DME billing is complicated because of the various kinds of paperwork, submission processes and insurance regulations necessary to collect money from a patient or insurance company. Medical offices, chiropractors, therapists and others are busy taking care of people, and don’t have the time to deal with DME billing. So oftentimes they will use a DME billing service as a middleman.
How Do You Make Money At It?
Many DME billing services charge a percentage of what they collect. So if they don’t do it right, they won’t make money. If you start a home-based medical billing service, you must be motivated to bill and code correctly, to make a profit. The American Medical Association estimates that the average doctor spends more than $9.00 on each medical claim processed, with no guarantee that they will be paid. A DME billing service, if well-run and well-managed, can reduce those costs for doctors and leave them with more time to do what they are supposed to doâÂ?¦help patients. DME billing experts know how to deal with complex Medicare requirements, which involve sending claims to one of four regional DME carriers.
Learning How to Do Medical Billing
A medical billing course should not run you more than around $700. Expect to pay more than that if you go to a local college or vocational school. If it seems too cheap, you will get what you pay for. If you are studying to be a nationally certified medical coder, the course may take up to two years to complete. The course should also not promise you any kind of certification. Certain organizations award certifications, but only after a lengthy exam process. Ask the school or course organizer for a list of former students you can call for references and referrals. If they won’t provide a list, look elsewhere.
Some DME billing services take it a step further and introduce more services to clients, including specialized software, handling inventory of DME and collecting monthly rental fees from patients. Durable medical billing can be one of the best home business ideas and opportunities, if you take the time to learn the business, and offer doctor’s offices the extra services they need to keep their practice running smoothly.
