How to Do Billing From Home

Billing is a great home-based business.

Starting a billing business from home is a great way to make extra income. It is a great business for mothers who want to work from home or college students who need to make some extra money. When you start your own billing company, a popular niche is the medical community. With additional training in how to claim insurance funds, medical billing can be a lucrative business. Other niches could be lawyers, small business, or insurance companies. A home-based billing company will handle everything from maintaining a customer database, posting payments, and producing reports.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Printer
• Software
• Answering machine
• Office supplies
• Clearinghouse
• Postage

Instructions

1. Set up a home office. Be sure that you have all of the necessary office supplies arranged neatly. Make sure that you have labels, envelopes, and postage. You should also have a decent printer and business phone.

2. Secure clients. The two methods you will use the most as you start up are cold-calling businesses and networking within the local community, such as joining the local chamber of commerce. Choose clients that you can bill for and sell them your services. The medical community is a very popular industry to target. Also, according to the Entrepreneur website, a chiropractor will probably bill much more than your average doctor. Be sure that you can handle the amount of billing you take on.

3. Join a clearinghouse and purchase medical management software. According to Entrepreneur Magazine's website, medical-billing software ranges in price from $500 to $10,000. There is also a wide range of companies selling the software, with different capabilities. Evaluate the different software in terms of the technical support provided and how much the software helps you to market your business. A clearinghouse allows you to manage funds electronically. The membership fees vary greatly and a lengthy amount of time should be invested in choosing the right clearinghouse. Transmit the claims to the insurance companies and post payments to the patient or doctor's account.

4. Print an aging report so that you can make sure that customers and patients are paying for their services in a timely manner.

5. Check on the status of delinquent claims by calling insurance carriers. Call the carriers to make sure the claim will be paid. This will most likely occur when you have to submit a claim through the mail, as opposed to online.

Tips & Warnings

• Medical billing companies can make as much as $100,000, according to Entrepreneur Magazine's website.

• Join a professional organization such as the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management.

• Community colleges and career training programs often have medical-billing training and certification to prepare someone for a career in medical billing.

• Be wary of scams that promise huge returns with minimal training and investment.

References

• Entrepreneur: How to do Medical Billing from Home