How to Start a Home-Based Medical Billing Business
Doctors rely on medical billing services to get paid. Medical billing professionals are experts at dealing with patients and the complicated world of insurance providers to speed along the payment process. All of this can easily be accomplished from your home office. Learning how to start a home-based medical billing business can provide you with a flexible way to earn a living.
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Instructions
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Find your target market. Believe it or not, the clients you can service as a medical billing professional are quite diverse. There are family practitioners, chiropractors, obstetricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, dentists, pharmacists and more. A big benefit of working in a specialty is that you will become very familiar with the terminology and procedures, so the billings will be easy to complete.
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Figure out start-up costs. The main start-up costs involved come from equipment and software. This includes your computer, printer, high-speed Internet connection, fax machine, medical billing and accounting/invoicing software, reference manuals, Clearinghouse, HCFA forms, business stationery and other office supplies. Your medical billing software will account for a large part of the start-up costs. You can pay anywhere from $500 to $10,000.
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Set your rates. According to Entrepreneur.com, the annual gross income for medical billers ranges from $20,000 to $100,000. Some are able to work part-time and still completely support their families. Others have expanded into full-time businesses that employ several billers.
There are three ways a medical biller typically charges for his services: percentage (of the gross amount collected monthly), per claim, and by charging an hourly rate.
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Market consistently. Marketing is the key to keeping business continually flowing through the pipeline. Referrals are one of the best ways to secure more business in this industry. You can also contact physicians in your specialty by mailing out brochures and following up with a phone call.
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References
- Photo Credit doctor image by JASON WINTER from Fotolia.com
