Does a Medical Billing Service Cost Less than In-House Billing Staff?

For a typical practice with 1-8 doctors and monthly revenue between $25,000/month to
$250,000/month, the answer is almost always “YES”- a medical billing service almost always costs less
than in-house billing. Below are some typical scenarios:

 

Practice A – $30,000/month revenue

  • Number of Doctors: Solo Practitioner

  • Office Manager: None

  • Billing Staff: One mid-level biller earning $15/hour

 

Practice B – $100,000/month revenue

  • Number of Doctors: Three Physicians

  • Office Manager: Salary of $50,000/year but spends only 25% of her time managing the billing department

  • Billing Staff: Two medical billers earning $15.00/hour

 

Practice C – $250,000/month revenue

  • Number of Doctors: Five Physicians

  • Office Manager: Salary of $70,000/year but spends only 25% of her time managing the billing department

  • Billing Staff: One billing manager earning $20.00/hour, and three other billers earning between $15.00/hour and $16.00/hour

The numbers for your particular practice may vary from those above. But the trends shown
above remain accurate for most practices: in-house billing is a less efficient way to perform medical
billing. A practice could reduce costs by reducing its staff or its benefits but doing so will decrease the
quality and effectiveness of the billing staff.

The main point will remain the same – for all but the largest practices, in-house billing requires more expense to achieve the same result provided by a billing service.

Rusty Wilson is the founder and principal of eMed Partners, a full-service medical billing company for physicians and medical practices.
For more about our billing services: http://emedpartners.com/
To follow Rusty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rusty-wilson-520206/

Mike Moll