Dangers of outsourcing your billing

Complexity and cost. Those are two reasons why clients tell us they use a third-party, offshore company for their billing operations. This practice has become particularly prevalent in the healthcare industry where billing can involve multiple locations, vendors, services, insurance companies, and personnel. Having another company manage the billing process can result in efficiencies and cost-savings. It can also increase a company’s risk of a data breach. Outsourcing billing services may make financial sense, but it is important that hospitals and medical practices understand the risk landscape of this still-emerging industry. It is critical to ask the right questions to make sure international partners have the right security practices and protocols in place to protect sensitive information. Before engaging with a third-party for billing operations, a practice must understand its own vulnerabilities, which usually requires an outside perspective and assessment. A risk assessment will highlight areas where someone with enough access could collect sensitive patient, vendor, and personnel data.