Medical coding

The bewildering complexity of medical billing and how Zento can help you out

Author: Ben Dudley

Date: June 26, 2024

anaesthetist billing
Medical coding and billing can be a real headache, and getting it wrong can lead to big problems. If you’re an anaesthetist, surgeon, physician, or surgical assistant, you have a choice: handle billing in-house or let experts like Zento take care of it. Let’s look into both options and see why outsourcing medical billing might be the better way to go.
In-house medical coding and billing

Managing medical coding and billing internally

Handling medical coding and billing internally means your staff needs to be both knowledgeable and have enough time to do the job right.

Here’s what you’re up against:

  • Waiting on responses: If there is a problem with a claim, your team will spend a lot of time waiting for replies from patients and health funds, which can seriously delay the medical billing process.
  • Accuracy: A tiny mistake in medical billing codes or patient details can cause huge delays. You might end up waiting months or even over a year for payment.
  • Regulations: Keeping up with constantly changing healthcare regulations and insurer requirements is critical. Missing any updates can lead to mistakes and more delays.
These tasks need dedicated time and focus. If your staff is already busy with other tasks, errors and delays are bound to happen, leading to serious financial consequences.

What are the consequences of incorrect billing?

Getting medical billing wrong isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a major problem with significant impacts:
  • Delayed payments: Incorrect billing can lead to long delays in payment. These delays aren’t minor; they can stretch out for over a year, affecting both you and your patients.
  • Financial strain: Without timely payments, your practice can face cash flow problems, making it difficult to cover operational costs and pay your staff. Patients might also face unexpected bills and financial stress due to denied claims or errors.
  • Administrative burden: Fixing billing errors requires re-submitting claims and following up repeatedly, which can be a time-consuming and frustrating process.
In short, incorrect billing can result in no payment at all, which can cripple your practice financially.
“Medical billing is crucial because it determines if you get paid or not. This process involves many conflicts between different participants. None of it is rocket science, it just can become a huge suck of time.”

Ben Dudley

Founder Zento

Outsourced medical billing and AI coding

The alternative: outsourcing medical billing to Zento

Outsourcing your medical coding and billing to Zento can make your life so much easier. Here’s why:
  • Expertise: At Zento, we handle over 6,000 claims every month. Our team is well-versed in medical billing, making sure everything is accurate and compliant with all the latest regulations.
  • Efficiency: When claims are submitted correctly through Eclipse, payments usually come through within 48 hours.
  • AI coding: We use smart AI coding to make anaesthetic billing more accurate and efficient, reducing errors and speeding up claim processing.
  • Patient communication: We take care of educating your patients about fees and out-of-pocket expenses, so they know what to expect. This helps reduce confusion and boosts their satisfaction.
  • Peace of mind: With Zento managing your billing, you can rest easy knowing that your financials are in good hands. This allows you to focus more on providing the best clinical care to your patients.
  • Focus on patient care: By outsourcing billing, you can dedicate more time to patient care and less time to administrative tasks. This leads to better patient outcomes and a more efficient practice.
  • Protecting your reputation: Accurate and compliant billing practices are essential for maintaining your practice’s reputation. By entrusting your billing to Zento’s experts, you can minimise the risk of errors, disputes, or legal issues that could potentially harm your standing in the medical community and among patients.

The patient perspective

Patients often find the billing process confusing, especially with unexpected out-of-pocket expenses.
“Medical billing is confusing, especially with how health insurers use the term “gap.” They talk about gap payments, which are the out-of-pocket costs patients have to cover because their insurance doesn’t pay the full amount. Then there’s gap cover, which some insurance policies provide to reduce or eliminate these payments. This terminology can be as bewildering as comparing different mobile phone plans, each with its own set of services and costs. Patients already feeling anxious about their health can find this added layer of financial complexity very frustrating.”

Ben Dudley

Founder Zento

Clear, upfront communication is essential. When patients understand their financial responsibilities, they’re more likely to pay their bills without frustration. This is where Zento shines, offering clear and upfront information about costs.
Benefits of outsourced medical billing

In summary

Medical coding and billing can be a complex, time-consuming task that needs expertise and extreme attention to detail. If done internally, your staff must be well-trained and have enough time to do it right. Outsourcing to Zento can take this burden off your shoulders, making sure your billing is accurate, timely, and hassle-free.
“By choosing Zento, you can focus on delivering quality care while we handle the complexities of billing, making sure you get paid accurately and on time.”

Ben Dudley

Founder Zento

Medical coding

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“Zento is an outstanding practice management and billing service that set up my private practice as a new consultant a few years ago and the whole process couldn’t be easier for me!
Their billing system is simple, quick and transparent and their fees are amongst the lowest. They also help my practice by sending out patient questionnaires, facilitating my CPD and organising social events, just to mention a few!
I highly recommend their services to anyone in the medical field seeking guidance and support in launching a successful private practice or looking to streamline their billing process to save time and money.”

Mahsa Mirkazemi

“I had expanded my private practice and was paying a secretary to do my billing, but was still dealing with the hassle of incorrect bills and phone calls from patients. I decided I needed to take myself out of the equation completely, and found out about Zento from colleagues. Since then it has been smooth sailing, with Zento taking care of all my admin, and quickly and easily dealing with any billing problems. As a result, very little of my time is spent on admin now.”

Brian Morrow, Anaesthetist

“I found billing a nightmare – so much so that it was stopping me from doing private work. I heard that Zento provided a solution, and it revolutionised everything. The setup process was very straightforward, and now, they do all my admin – sending off the bills, checking they’ve been paid, chasing unpaid bills. I’m very happy with the service, and I would definitely recommend them to another anaesthetist.”

Helen Daly, Anaesthetist

“Coming from Europe, I was unfamiliar with the process of billing patients when I set up my private practice in Australia. Zento knew what they were doing when I came on board, and made the preparation of the paperwork a smooth experience. Now, I can tell patients that fees will be dealt with by another party, leaving my relationship with them positive. So many things have been taken off my plate, and if I don’t have to spend time preparing invoices, I’m happy!”

Thomas Ledowski, Anaesthetist

“I avoided private work because I was uncomfortable with gaining informed financial consent and didn’t have the mechanism to be able to charge a gap. I didn’t want to have the ‘money’ conversation with my patients, but when the opportunity to work with a private surgeon arose, I had to figure out a solution. After speaking with Ben, I knew Zento was the right service to fix my problems. Now I spend less than 30 minutes a month on financial admin for my private work, and talking about money with my patients is seldom required.”

Perth-based Anaesthetist

“Since I joined Zento I have been able to focus on what I’m good at which is giving anaesthetics rather than billing, chasing up bad debts, providing quotes. I was terrible at it! Ben’s team has always been very helpful and professional. Service fees have decreased! I’m very happy.”

Leah , Anaesthetist

“Has made my anaesthetic billing a breeze. Quick, reliable, efficient and highly transparent. My only regret is that I didn’t change to Zento years ago.”

Steve, Anaesthetist

“When commencing private practice there was a large learning curve in terms of the various health funds and their differences in terms of billing and rebates. Zento took away all of the stress associated with this so I could focus purely on caring for my patients. In addition, they took responsibility for other key issues such as provider numbers and accreditation at the various hospitals I wanted to work at.”

Nolan McDonnell, Anaesthetist

“They are professional, efficient and take a huge administrative burden off.”

Perth-based anaesthetist

“Zento helps me concentrate on my core job: looking after patients.”

Perth-based anaesthetist

“Huge burden lifted from my shoulders. Zento takes all of the admin load.”

Perth-based anaesthetist

“Since using their service I am consistently impressed by the level of service and attention to detail offered by the Zento team.
Knowing that my administration, reception and PA services are taken care of allows me to focus on my patients, my clinical activities and building up my practice.”

Perth-based cardiologist

“As a new Fellow I had no experience in how a practice is run let alone set up and I wanted to start my own practice. The Zento group have taken my idea and made it a reality. They are available, and thorough. They take time to understand what you need and work with you to achieve those goals realistically and practically. I am especially impressed by how they work hard at facilitating my vision for my practice.”

Perth-based obstetrician and gynaecologist

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