The Cost of Medical Billing Services: An In-Depth Guide

We get it — managing a practice is expensive, and the cost of medical billing services adds yet another layer. This is especially true when out-of-network patients come to you for services. You want your patients to have the best care at the lowest price, even if your practice isn’t covered by their insurance. This means you need to stay on top of healthcare reimbursements for quick and easy payments for your patients and less fewer administrative headaches for you. 

Thankfully, SuperBill makes health insurance reimbursement easy with benefits checks, claim filing and tracking, claim denial resolution, expert customer support, and medical bill negotiation. Stop manually combing through spreadsheets and fighting with insurance companies — start processing healthcare reimbursements faster with SuperBill!

While we’ll take care of billing processes for you, you may be curious about the average cost of medical billing services and how it all works behind the scenes. In this article, we’ll discuss average costs and fees, the value in outsourcing your billing, and how to price your medical billing services. Keep reading to learn more! 

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What are Medical Billing Services?

A medical billing service helps providers reimburse out-of-network patients by submitting medical claims on everyone’s behalf. Once your patient has uploaded their medical bills into SuperBill, we turn them into claims and send them to their health insurance company. If a claim gets denied, we will fight the denial through appeals and calls to their health insurance company. No need to wait on hold and fight it yourself! Between calls and sorting through claims, solutions like SuperBill will save your team countless hours while helping your patients receive the insurance coverage they need.

Common types of services provided by a medical billing services include:

• Seamless enrollment in billing systems
• Insurance verification and authorization
• Medical and charge entry coding
• Claim filing and tracking
• Claim appeals and denials
• Payment and insurance collections
• Billing audits
• Medical bill negotiation

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The Cost of Medical Billing Services

The cost of medical billing services depends on which company you go with and the scope of services your healthcare practice needs. Here, we’ll talk about typical medical billing services fees as well as the cost of using SuperPay, the out-of-network insurance billing service provided by SuperBill (spoiler alert: SuperPay is always free for providers!).

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One-Time Fees

Many medical billing services have one-time fees for each claim filed. It can be either a flat rate or a percentage of the total billed amount. Other times, companies will charge a percentage of the total reimbursement, or the revenue coming back to your practice.

If your healthcare practice does not accept a patient’s insurance, you may not need a traditional medical billing service that files claims to insurance payors. This certainly saves your practice money because an outside company isn’t taking a cut of each session or patient visit. But your patients still likely need support in using their out-of-network benefits for and seeking a health insurance reimbursement! 

The good news is, SuperBill can help. We distinguish ourselves from other medical billing companies by providing medical practices with a comprehensive range of effective claim automation solutions without imposing extra financial burdens or commitments. SuperBill’s out-of-network billing service, SuperPay, automates patient claims for out-of-network care, and it is completely free for providers. Your patients simply complete our quick onboarding and add their payment and insurance info, then you’re ready to process their payments. SuperBill checks the patient’s benefits, files and tracks their claims, and handles any claim denials - and you aren’t charged a thing. The cost of SuperBill’s services are covered by the standard processing fees you already pay to run a patient’s credit or debit card. 

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Recurring Fees

As we mentioned, SuperPay costs providers nothing—no one-time fees, and also no recurring fees or monthly payments. This is not the case for most medical billing services, though.

Other medical billing services may have recurring fees, such as monthly subscription costs for providers. These can cost several hundreds of dollars every month. Some companies offer packages with different offerings depending on the types of services the provider needs.

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Average Charges for Medical Billing Services

Pricing your medical billing services can be tricky. You may be wondering, aside from SuperBill, how much does medical billing cost? What is the average charge for medical billing services? The amount depends heavily on the service you use, what kind of help you’ll get from it, how many claims you’ll submit, and whether you’re a solo or group practice provider. In general, though, medical billing services charge 2-6% of the total amount collected by the provider. You can get a quote from most medical billing services on their websites.

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Why Outsource Medical Billing?

So, why should your medical practice outsource billing? 

Filing insurance claims can be a hassle. So is dealing with insurance companies when your claims are denied. Insurance companies give confusing answers about why your claims are denied, and they often have drawn-out procedures for reprocessing claims. It could take months for a single claim to reprocess! This is time wasted while your practice waits for revenue to come in.

Making calls to insurance payors usually means extensive time waiting on hold. And after calling an insurance company, you’ll be lucky to get a call back regarding your claims, whether you’re in- or out-of-network. This can lead to frequent follow-ups with insurance, and those follow-ups still might not provide much information because insurance can take so long to make progress on claims. It’s exhausting and time-consuming to deal with insurance for your practice. Especially if you have a small practice with limited staff and resources to devote to checking on insurance claims.

You won't have to deal with insurance companies nearly as often when outsourcing your medical billing as a provider. Companies like SuperBill handle out-of-network claim appeals and insurance phone calls so you can sit back, relax, and focus on providing exceptional care to your patients.

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Medical Billing Service Fees

Medical billing services often have additional costs beyond the ongoing fees for the services. As a medical practice, you may incur some fees during setup or while using billing software. Let’s talk about those fees.

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Set Up Fees

The cost of medical billing services, including medical billing costs, often includes set up fees. As we mentioned previously, out-of-network providers can get set up free with SuperPay to streamline their out-of-network billing process. Other medical billing services may cost a bit to set up, however. For a doctor’s office, medical billing service rates of $300 per provider set up are common.. There may be a limit or cap to how much a medical practice will be charged for set up fees, something like $1,000-1,500. If you have a lot of providers at your practice, look for a medical billing service that offers free setup or has a cap on how much you’ll spend.

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Software Fees

The cost of medical billing services Medical billing service costs will also vary based on the software used for your practice. A practice may use online schedulers, online payment platforms, and other kinds of software to run their business, all with their own associated costs.  

Medical billing software varies greatly in cost. Some software starts at $65 monthly; others go up to $599 per month. These rates are just for the basic features, too. The cost of medical billing services with advanced software features could cost up to $15,600 a month, but this is more likely to be the case for large healthcare facilities. Some software comes with a free trial, so you can try them before you buy them. Others require you to buy them outright. 

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How to Price Your Medical Billing Service Options

Pricing your medical billing service doesn’t have to be complicated. Most medical billing services provide quotes to new users, so your practice will know in advance how much you’ll be spending. You should shop around to find the best price on medical billing services, and organize your findings to make sure the services you’re comparing have all the features your practice needs.

Medical billing services can be a game-changer for providers and healthcare practices, helping overburdened staff to more easily manage complicated insurance processes. Using a high-quality medical billing service will help ensure your practice understands patient benefits before providing care. And after you provide that care, you can ensure patients are charged the appropriate amount, that insurance claims are filed in a timely and accurate manner, and that your practice receives maximum reimbursement from insurance payors. While medical billing services might seem costly for your practice, giving your patients and staff a smooth, stress-free experience surrounding payment is well worth the cost.   

With SuperBill, out-of-network providers have a no-cost solution. They can sign up for SuperPay and continue to charge their full rate. SuperBill will automatically send claims to the patient’s insurance and fight to get them reimbursed. We save patients time and money by fighting denied claims for them, and we help providers keep their patients by making the process seamless. 

If you’re an out-of-network provider, sign up for SuperPay today. Get paid your full rate and satisfy your patients with streamlined reimbursement support. And if you’re a patient, look no further than SuperBil to handle your insurance reimbursements. Just invite your provider to sign up for SuperPay today. It’s free!