Significantly different from the healthcare system in Europe and other countries, the US healthcare delivery system creates a huge number of jobs for people involved in medical coding and billing.
Coding and billing are crucial parts of medical services reimbursement for hospitals by insurance companies. Of course, your hospital or insurance company can use third-party medical billing software, but we offer you to consider the option of creating software customized to your needs.
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Why Medical Coding And Billing Are So Important?
On average, billing and coding officers make about $40,000 a year and fulfill repetitive monotonous tasks. Moreover, as people do the work, mistakes often happen, which can lead to significant losses for both hospitals and insurance companies.
Although today there are several big companies, offering medical billing coding software, the number of programs is clearly insufficient to cover the needs of all hospitals, customers, and insurance companies. One of the reasons why we need more medical software is that there are many types of medical coding.
Types Of Medical Coding
Each type of coding is responsible for a specific set of medical manipulations.
- For example, the most common coding system, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), is used in the diagnosis and for the operation of diagnostic centers.
- Meanwhile, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) encoding is used to “translate” surgical and other invasive procedures performed on patients into the medicinal language.
- Equally important is the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), coding those manipulations and prescriptions for patients that are not related to surgery, for example, for drugs prescription.
Why Do You Need Medical Coding And Billing Software?
At the moment, there is a huge room for growth in the areas of hospital reimbursement for the treatment of patients by insurance companies. Most billing and coding processes can become more automated, which can not only make life easier for insurance companies and hospitals but also reduce the cost of processing a single application.
Three Ways To Develop Medical Software
Let’s look at several ways to create medical software, from the cheapest to the most expensive.
Hiring Freelancers
You can save a lot by hiring and managing a few freelance developers. However, this method has some disadvantages.
- First, freelance developers are better suited for short-term projects, while online billing and coding programs will require constant maintenance of both the software itself and the up-to-date codes.
- Secondly, few freelancers can get involved in a new project as much as you need them to. In the case of medical software, you need the developer to be maximally engaged in the process.
Outsourcing The Development
You can fully or partially delegate work on your startup to the outsourcing company. Today, outsourcing has proven to be a good business solution for many areas, including development. What are its benefits?
- By choosing a company in a country where developer salaries are lower than in your country, you can save a lot on direct labor costs.
- You get access to a larger pool of specialists with experience in the medical area.
- Depending on the outsourcing model you choose, you can either stay away from development by entrusting the process entirely to the contractor or retain management and control functions, constantly monitoring the development process and directing the team where you need it.
Maintaining An In-house Team
One of the most reliable ways to build software is to hire a development team to work in your office. In addition to obvious advantages (maximum employee involvement, effective management of the office team), this approach also has several disadvantages. In particular:
- Maintaining a physical office with a development team will cost a pretty penny, since a physical office is not only salaries for technical specialists, but also rent and salaries for administrative staff.
- You have less access to experienced, unique technical talents because your recruiters are limited to the job market of your city or country.
How To Choose A Reliable Contractor For Medical Software Development?
When choosing a third party to develop medical software, the first thing you should pay attention to is whether the company has experience in creating products specifically in the medical field. Check out if your contractor has successful cases of creating complex medical services for the medical market leaders.
By choosing experienced developers, you save yourself the trouble of explaining to contractors exactly what you need for your project.
Also extremely important is the reputation of the company with which you are going to cooperate. To get started, read reviews of the company’s work from previous customers on reliable platforms, for example, on Clutch.
Find the best value for your money. When choosing an outsourced model to work on your software used for medical billing, you get the flexibility to opt for what is more important to you – the price or the quality. Find the best price/quality ratio depending on your budget and needs.
