WCH Advocates for Healthcare Billing Reform
WCH met with and educated legislators about a critical lack of oversight in the healthcare billing industry that puts healthcare providers at risk and costs taxpayers millions of dollars in fraudulent claims every year.
During the Healthcare Business Management Association’s (HBMA) Legislative Fly-In Day, May 25, WCH Chief Executive Officer Aleksandr Romanychev, Olga Khabinskay, Chief Operating Officer, and Billing Group Supervisor Oksana Pokoyeva spoke with senior staff at the offices of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Representative Jerrold Nadler.
They discussed the healthcare billing industry, the crucial role of billing professionals who work on behalf of physicians and medical facilities, and their recommendations for auditing and improving billing processes and procedures.
“Even though medical billers are responsible for billing and collecting tens of millions of dollars every year, there are no formal compliance, licensing or certification requirements within the industry,” says Alex. “Billers are not subject to audits. There aren’t any mandated rules of conduct or ethics.”
WCH is advocating for education and standardization to better define the role of medical billers, and licensing and oversight to keep billing clean so that healthcare services remain accessible and affordable.
WCH proposes:
- Recognizing and better defining the crucial role of medical billers
- Partnering with industry associations to develop national billing standards and licensing
- Improving communications to build stronger relationships between billers, healthcare providers and insurance companies
- Making billing processes more transparent to prevent unnecessary billing
- Holding billers liable for errors and for submitting fraudulent claims
- Establishing clean claims initiatives to meet each insurance carrier’s requirements
“Legislators we met with were surprised this kind of licensing and oversight for medical billing doesn’t exist already,” says Olga. “WCH is committed to advocating with HBMA as a member of its vendor community committee and doing whatever we can to help make medical billing more transparent, accurate and verifiable.”
WCH Leaders Met with Legislators to Discuss Healthcare Billing Reform
WCH is committed to educating employees, communicating with clients and producing clean claims so that physicians receive the right reimbursements for their services.
WCH Chief Executive Officer Aleksandr Romanychev, Chief Operating Officer Olga Khabinskay, and Billing Group Supervisor Oksana Pokoyeva met with legislative health aids to advocate for medical billing standards that could save government and other medical insurers millions of dollars every year.
“We started an important conversation,” says Olga. “Billers are responsible for keeping processes up-to-date, recognizing errors, and making sure healthcare providers know how to correct them. We are excited about the potential for improvement throughout the industry.”
