There’s nothing better than having someone do my work for me (no, boss, I really thought this great post up all by myself.)

Anyway, Chris Thorman, who blogs about medical billing software at Software Advice has a long reasoned approach to why your clients should outsource their business to — you, of course.

The reasons are no different than many of the posts we’re written repeatedly in our blog, but sometimes reading someone else triggers some ideas. So spend five minutes and read Chris’ thoughts, then come back and read more of ours.

Medical blog: Should you outsource your medical claims?

Setting rates is one of the tougher things to do. Go too high and you lose clients. Go too low and you lose money.

The best way to set rates is knowing what you’re worth. What would it cost the clients to pay staff for what you’re doing as an outsourced contractor. Physician’s Practice.com surveyed 1,051 companies over pay scales and found region dictates scale. Bigger cities where it cost more pay more — no surprise there.

It’s worth a few minutes to study the data. Who knows — it may supply you with information needed to convince clients you’re worth more.

Australia’s ICSGlobal recently spent $1.75 million for Medical Recovery Services (MRS) in Georgia. Now it’s looking for more companies to acquire, according to The Australian newspaper.

“There are 3,000 medical billing companies in the US, and we plan either to partner with or to acquire some of those to build up our presence,” chief executive Tim Murray said. “We’re offering a service where doctors are receiving more money than ever before because of better billing and claiming practices, while we get transaction revenue through Thelma plus a percentage of the revenue from the billing companies.

“Healthcare billing is still a cottage industry in the US, and this probably one of the last great opportunities for consolidation. It’s a simple strategy, and we’ve got the tools and the platform.”

Interesting . . .

Dr. Ben Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for his work at Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery. Yet, he almost left medicine over his frustration with billing.

In a remarkably frank profile by The Washington Times, Dr. Carson revealed just how gridlocked the medical billing system can be if the doctor doesn’t know how to handle it.

“In order for physicians to get paid now, they have to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t,’ and then analyze that about four times,” Dr. Carson told the paper.

Sure enough, studies show health care providers lose $210 billion in claims despite 90 percent being preventable. It cost 14 percent of their revenue.

But, one of Dr. Carson’s contemporaries found the solution — outsourcing to billers.

“I probably pay a little bit more than I would pay somebody in my office, but I don’t have to have the desk and I don’t have to have the phone line, and I don’t have to worry about vacations,” Dr. Marga Massey said. “It’s like MasterCard - it’s priceless, because I don’t have to worry about it.”

Take that quote and show it to clients. If high-profile health care providers believe unconditionally in outsourcing billing, they should, too.

When was the last time you tweaked your presentation pitch? Often, we stay with what works, but today’s competitive times require a fresh approach.

When doctors ask why they should move their billing from the office where they can oversee everything to your off-site office, make sure the following five reasons are in your presentation.

* Reduce and control operating costs.
* Improve company focus.
* Gain access to world-class capabilities.
* Free internal resources for other purposes.
* Resources are not available internally.

The first one is easy. Everybody likes to save money. As an outsourcer, you work strictly on commission. They’re not paying all the extras like insurance, 401K and vacation time.

The company can narrow it’s goal — treat patients. You’re handling the paperwork.

They get a coder who specializes in the forms, not someone who was moved over to it in the office or has 10 other things to do. They’re getting a specialist. Doctors should understand that.

The doctor has more manpower to handle other tasks. Ever seen a doctor’s office that wasn’t busy? I’m sure they could use the extra person.

Finally, you bring knowledge not often in an office. You’re the expert. Everybody needs that.

We practice fire drills in school. Fill out emergency contact information cards for our companies. Have a safety deposit box for important papers.

But 9/11 taught us one important thing — be prepared for anything. Disasters happen all the time in all different ways.

We’re not just talking hurricanes and tornadoes, though we’ve seen offices destroyed by both. It can be something simple like an overhead water sprinkler going off and drowning everything in the office. Or a water main break sending water gushing into an office. Or a fire next door that consumes your office.

Things happen, and bad things happen all the time.

So what’s our point? You can sell yourself as the ultimate safety valve to a doctor’s office. Supposed any of these things happen to them to wipe out their computer system and paper records — what would they do? Ask them that question. They probably don’t have an answer.

Actually, you’re the answer. They need a recovery plan. By being an off-site vendor, you have their records in a secondary place. You can keep the office running the same day. You’re their fail-safe in times of trouble.

When selling yourself, tell doctors you’re more than someone who handles paperwork. You’re a vital part of their office — in good times and bad.

Business Wire recently discussed the biggest fear among doctors over outsourcing — loss of control over data.

The joke is on them. Unless doctors personally process each bill, it’s always somewhat out of their hands even if it’s processed by an in-house office worker. The key for independent billers to overcoming that fear is showing the time and economic benefits of outsourcing to their overall productivity.

Less time spent on billing matters means more time spent with patients, which means more billing overall.

“If the doctor has a staff handling the billing process it is often delayed or sent to insurance companies with incomplete information or coding errors because the process is among other office responsibilities of the staff,” one company official told Business Wire. “Control is actually gained by outsourcing because of the timely, sophisticated reports generated for the physician by the outsourcing firm.”

So problem No. 1 — not having control over data — is easily solved.

Problem No. 2 — cost of office staff. It’s not just their hourly wages, but vacation pay, sick leave, matching social security costs and health benefits for starters. It adds up.

Outsourcing works on a straight contract. It’s often a flat fee or a percentage. In the end, outsourcing is far less expensive than in-house staff while never paying for “down time” like vacation, holidays and sick leave.

So problem No. 2 — expenses — is easily solved.

What’s problem No. 3? Let’s see, doctors still control data with outsourced billers. They do it much more efficiently and less expensively. And down time is never a problem because there is none.

How can anyone have a problem with that?