Billing for durable medical equipment (DME) plays a critical role in the operational efficiency of hospices and home health agencies while allowing them to ensure financial stability. Billing errors can quickly create a ripple effect that results in administrative burdens, compliance risks, delayed reimbursements, and disrupted patient care.
How can you help your hospice stay on top of DME billing accuracy issues? Start by taking stock of what's going wrong, and then consider adopting a technology solution like Qualis which streamline and automate much of the process for you.
Hospices face a wide range of challenges when managing DME billing. These issues can arise from outdated systems, inefficient processes — or human error.
Duplicate billing typically occurs when a DME vendor manually processes invoices. It's one of the most prevalent causes of unnecessary expenses and can quickly damage the relationship between you and your DME vendors. In addition to creating an administrative headache, it can sow seeds of distrust.
Charges for non-formulary items can also be a source of financial tension. We are beginning to see with some DME providers and DME management companies, items in the formulary being decouple and pieces of formulary equipment being segregated into non-formulary items, resulting in charges to the hospice.
Billing errors claimed by vendors, not only lead to strained vendor relationships, but also substantial amounts of wasted administrative time as you research previous invoices and payables to prove that an item billed out of cycle was correctly paid.
If your hospice lacks a comprehensive system for managing DME billing and expenses, it's impossible to forecast budgets and financial trends with confidence. This lack of financial clarity directly translates to overspending, missed savings opportunities, and inefficient resource allocations.
And that's where incorporating an automated system into your practice can help you proactively manage DME billing.
Automation is revolutionizing the DME world, streamlining operations, enhancing efficiencies, and minimizing the risk of human error. Here are some of the features and functionality of automated DME billing systems that are now available at your fingertips:
By implementing an automated solution that provides comprehensive DME management, you can expect an almost immediate reduction in duplicate charges, missing information, and pricing discrepancies, allowing you and your staff to focus on much more important things!
Comprehensive audits demonstrate a commitment to billing integrity. By keeping on top of your practices, you foster trust between your practice and your vendors. Hospices that make an effort to prioritize regular audits have an easier time preventing costly mistakes and freeing their staff to focus on their number one priority: providing patient care.
Gone are the days when you must work with a single vendor or a one-size-fits-all solution. At Qualis, we understand more than anyone the challenges hospices like yours face while trying to ensure DME billing accuracy. Through our advanced and automated software solution, we simplify the entire process for you, saving you time (as much as 40 hours of DME-related administrative time per week) and money (in some cases, up to 25% for non-formulary items), so you can continue to put your patients and their families first.
See how Qualis can simplify your DME billing process with automated solutions and expert audits. Contact us today!