An urgent care center is a good halfway point for those who need treatment for acute illnesses and non-life-threatening injuries yet don’t need to go to an emergency room. The wait time at urgent care centers is significantly shorter than what you would find in an emergency room, there’s always at least one licensed physician on staff, and it’s much less expensive. The only problem is that insurance companies can make it very difficult for urgent care centers to become credentialed.
What is Credentialing?
An urgent care center requires the proper licenses to operate in a particular jurisdiction, but it also needs to be affiliated with major insurance companies so it can accept third party reimbursement. This is known as credentialing, and it allows a center to receive steady payments and treat a greater number of patients. In other words, it is essential for the operation of any urgent care center.
Credentialing may seem like a simple matter, but it can be a major obstacle for an upstart urgent care clinic. First of all, the process can take as long as six months, so a center needs to get a head start on it if it is going to have a steady cash flow as soon as it opens. Second of all, the credentialing process varies from one payer to the next. The staff at New England Medical Billing stays up to date on the ever changing requirements for each payor.
How New England Medical Billing Can Help You
If you’re concerned that your urgent care center won’t be properly credentialed, you can always go to a medical billing service to assist in the process for you. That’s where New England Medical Billing can help you. We expedite every step of the credentialing process for urgent care centers. We can help you fill out all the proper paperwork, handle the communication between you and the insurance companies, make sure that all submitted claims are paid and generally ensure that you have a steady cash flow.
Running an urgent care center is a lot of work, and we want to help make things a little bit easier. Contact New England Medical Billing to find out how we can help you with all of your medical billing needs including credentialing.
