The decision to outsource your medical and billing will depend on several factors. Here we will attempt to evaluate the cost of hiring an in-house coder and compare that to the cost and benefits of utilizing an outside billing agency.

The following assumes that your practice employees a single coder earning $14 per hour, which comes to just over $29,000 per year. In addition to the employees salary we must also take into account things such as taxes, healthcare, materials and supplies. Of course none of this takes into account the cost associated with things such as office space, climate control and overtime.

Base Sallary......................................................................................................................................................$29,000

Payroll Taxes.....................................................................................................................................................$1,836

Healthcare and Disability...................................................................................................................................$3,400

Retirement Plan.................................................................................................................................................$864

Vacation and Sick Time.....................................................................................................................................$2,616

Postage for Statements.....................................................................................................................................$300

Clearinghouse Fees...........................................................................................................................................$1000

Computer Software/Hardware Maintenance....................................................................................................$2,500

Materials............................................................................................................................................................$2,000

Combining salary, benefits and basic needs, hiring a single in-house coder to handle your medical billing conservatively costs $43,216 each year.

The cost of using a medical and billing company will depend on a variety of factors. Billing services normally charge either a flat fee per transaction or they charge a percentage of what they collect for the practice. We are going to assume the practice has a annual cash flow of about $450,000 per year. We base this figure on a single doctor seeing 25-30 patients per day and that he has 2,500 patient visits per year receiving an average reimbersement of $60 per visit.

If the billing practice charges at a rate of 7% then the annual cost to perform all of your medical billing and coding will be $31,500, which gives us a savings of $12,016 each year. While the monetary savings are significant, the real benifit to switching to a billing service is peace of mind. When you utilize a service to handle your billing and coding needs, you are no longer subject to gaps in service due to vacations or sick time. You also have a team with the collective individual experiences and training available to you to process your claims in a timely, stable and efficient manner.

Call today and learn how our team here at Ampyss can help maximize your practice's reimbersement efforts. We look forward to working with you!