Family Physicians- Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
                     
Family Physicians: Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
Family Medicine forms a crucial point of entry in the health care system, and the need as well as the shortage 
of family physicians in the United States is becoming a growing concern. Other specialties such as radiology, 
neurosurgery, and dermatology are more attractive due to the higher amount of compensation provided to 
physicians in these areas. Moreover, the looming Medicare cuts that have been postponed for a long time and 
are now extended to January 1, 2012, present another problem for family practitioners in avoiding losses in 
income. Family medicine and family physicians play a vital role in the healthcare system of a country.
Another important factor is the health reforms coupled with an increasing number of aging baby boomers in 
the coming years which would keep family physicians busier than before and hard-pressed for time and 
money.
Chronic Hurdles
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Family Physicians: Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
Medicare is facing problems because of Federal fiscal troubles and Medicare cuts have been proposed in 
order to compensate for the rising health care costs. The recent debt ceiling increase at the eleventh hour by 
the government bears witness to the fact that Medicare is unable to withstand the increasing pressure 
brought on by a large number of the aging population in the country. The inevitable solution to this income 
crisis faced by family physicians and in the field of primary medicine is better payer performance and 
adherence to the guidelines in regard to administrative or other processes involved in the revenue cycle 
management. These chronic pressures on the revenue of family physicians can be relieved by ensuring the 
reduction of errors in the billing and coding procedures which are becoming more complex and extended in 
nature. Professionals who can perform better payer interaction and medical coding and billing can bring 
about speedy and fair reimbursement compared to inexperienced or overworked in-house staff.
The Geriatric Paradox
The increasing number of baby boomers and elder people indicates better life expectancy but also makes 
physicians, hospitals, and clinics dealing with chronic illnesses associated with old age busier by the day. 
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Family Physicians: Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
Moreover, the Medicare fiscal issues exacerbate the problem by proposing to provide easy access to 
insurance for the elderly but lesser payments for physicians. As the baby boomer population grows, the 
number of physician-patient encounters by the elderly would also increase drastically, leaving very less or no 
time for physicians to handle paperwork or administrative tasks. Outsourcing the whole process of billing, 
coding, and payer interaction can be an easy and frugal solution to relieve the administrative burden faced by 
physicians and healthcare providers.
ICD-10 and Family Practice
The migration from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes is a major overhaul in the medical billing and coding industry and 
brings more complexity to the billing and coding procedures. Moreover, the fact that family physicians face 
diagnostic as well as treatment challenges across all ages, gender, diseases, and parts of the body makes 
billing and coding more detailed which requires dedicated professionals in order to avoid errors. The 
repercussions of errors impact not only the amount of reimbursement for physicians but can also jeopardize 
the privacy of patients’ healthcare data, emphasizing the importance of error-free billing and coding 
practices.
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Family Physicians: Medical Billing Challenges in Family Practice
How Do Healthcare IT Reforms Affect Family Practice Physicians?
The health reforms also extend to the health IT sector which would provide easy access to physicians, 
administrators, medical billers, and coders, as well as insurance companies regarding the information related 
to the treatment and other relevant data. Dedicated medical billers, transcriptionists, and medical coders can 
understand these changes from the implementation and testing of EMR and EHR to follow up with payers to 
receive timely and accurate reimbursements. The need for medical coders and billers who can cut down on 
errors and save physicians’ time and money is being felt more in the field of primary care and by family 
physicians due to the extensive changes in the health industry as the latest health reforms are being 
implemented across the country.
For more information about meaningful solutions to tackle these issues in the context of family practice and 
other specialties, as also for professional medical billing and coding services, please visit 
medicalbillersandcoders.com, the largest consortium of medical billers and coders in the United States, also 
specializing in Family Practice Billing. To know more about our family practice billing and coding services, 
email us at: [email protected] or call us at 888-357-3226.
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