As a medical practice, one of your most important daily tasks involves collecting payments in a timely and efficient manner. A strong revenue cycle with timely billing keeps the practice healthy patent balances manageable. No one likes to receive a bill months after a procedure has been performed. To help you keep up with your billing, we recommend these tips.
Be Prepared
Have a system in place so that you cover payment collection expectations before the appointment, after the appointment, and for deductibles and co-insurance. In general, it’s recommended to collect co-payments up front the day of the appointment and setup advance payment plans for high deductible plans. Insurance information should be confirmed.
Stay on Top of Errors in Workflow
When a payment has been denied, sometimes the issue occurs due to an error in coding. EHR system used by providers and staff are designed to prevent these errors with proper setup. All medical practices should have a system that tries to minimize rejections and denials whenever possible using technology. Some common issues that cause denials are a duplicate claim, conflicting services on the same date, coding errors, missing modifiers, or other CPT code combinations that are not allowed. Errors made on patient demographics and insurance create rejections. These can all be reduced by improving the clinic’s front-end processes, EHR setup, and coding procedures. This requires expertise in handling all areas of your billing and coding.
Missing the Money
Analyze your schedule against your claims to ensure the services line up with who was seen. Without a proper system reconciliation your practice will likely miss billings and not get reimbursed. Bills sent out with the wrong charge amount could mean a loss of revenue for your medical practice. Your EHR system should have reporting tools that help you keep track of missing charges on visits and fee schedule management. If not, you should consider investing in a better, more comprehensive software.
Go Digital
Have an online payment method available to patients. According to MedData, 68% of patients prefer an electronic option when paying their medical bills. It also garners a higher rate of the payments actually being paid on time.
Outsource Receivables Inc has been streamlining the billing process and supporting medical clinics for over 20 years. Contact us today to learn more.