Avoid Accounts Receivable Over 120 Days with Smart Medical Billing
Medical practice is not just about healthcare delivery. It is also a place where physicians invest their prime hours in treating patients and handling the administrative load. The latter task is where practitioners take help from the medical billing companies. And, as per the statistics, most medical practices seem to be fine with their outsourcing billing decision.
But, where one prefers in-house billing or outsourcing? It’s important to address the elephant in the room.
Do you have a high rate of accounts receivable (AR)?
What Is Account Receivable?
Generally, claims that don’t get a response from insurance companies within 120 days come under the AR tag. And, their tracking and following up refers to the AR management.
What Is the Thumb Rule of Assessing AR?
Every medical practice has pending claims that its team follows upon. And, it does not reflect on physicians’ poor performance. However, its ratio must be under control.
A thumb rule to determine if your medical billing services are performing well is by comparing your AR ratio to the one that MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) publishes.
You have two scenarios.
- If the practice’s collection rate is higher than the average percentage, it’s bad news overall!
- If your practice’s collection rate is below the average percentage, the medical billing companies are doing great.
You Must Take Steps to Cater the High Accounts Receivable!
In case of the high payments sitting on the table, the survival of the medical practice becomes threatening. And, for a seamless billing workflow, healthcare providers with their outsourcing medical billing services must sit down to counter the worsening situation.
If you don’t pay much attention to it, you will be losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. Of course, you wouldn’t want that!
So, to avoid this situation, we must combine all pieces in the jigsaw puzzle.
Let’s follow through.
Front-Desk Management
The most profitable medical billing process starts right from the front desk management. Clinicians and billers would agree that most mistakes happen during the data collection phase. The front desk officer is responsible to take all information that is then transferred to medical billing companies to add to the claim. So, if there is a little blunder or misinformation, it can go a long way.
To start, medical practices must get copies of:
- ID
- Insurance cards
- Driver’s license
Make sure that the patient fills out all necessary information accurately. A tip here that most billing services suggest is not to complicate the demographic information.
Because the officer might be listening to many patients and booking appointments simultaneously. Thus, there is a high chance of documenting the wrong information.
Moreover, patients must know their financial obligations clearly. The use of jargon is not appropriate in this context as most people would not understand them.
The following information must also be conveyed explicitly.
- Deductibles
- Copayments
Moreover, make sure to verify their insurance benefits as early as possible, preferably during the appointment time.
If your medical practice works with the following information, make sure your patient knows about it.
- Fee for an after-hours telephone consultation
- No-show fees
- Form fees
- Prescription refills
- Walk-in fees
- Returned check fees
- Billing fee
The clearly stated information at the front desk will save you from hassle afterward.
Accuracy of Charge Posting
If your medical practice does in-house medical billing, your front-desk team would be subject to charge posting. However, it is a job that requires patience and accuracy. Because a little mistake can make your pit effort all over again and tend to add payment in the patient’s court.
Moreover, in this step of medical billing services, they verify all the provided documents to ensure the rendered services, treatments, and diagnosis. Of course, one would want a peaceful environment for this, and amidst the appointment calls, doing this can result in a rejected claim.
White Chit from the Clearinghouses
Before medical billing companies submit claims to the payers, they are sent to the clearinghouses. The clearinghouse then processes the claims to check for errors. There is even much online software for that.
However, the billing team must be competent enough to correct all mentioned errors. Think of it as a filter system that verifies all information. Highlight errors and send them back to you to create a clean claim and resubmit it to the insurance company within the dedicated time.
If this step is not performed well, you are intentionally leaving chances for a denied claim.
Claim Follow-Ups
Without a doubt, medical practices are extremely busy. There is a hustle-bustle. How can you imagine this place to be at peace for a follow-up?
It is often seen that clinicians carelessly forget about following up on their submitted claims. And what more an insurance company wants? They are never reluctant to pile up your claims, even in a little doubt. So, you have to protect your claims and keep a check on them to get them registered.
Professional medical billing services have a practice of following up on the submitted claims over 120 days.
Another thing that they do is sign up on every insurance company’s website. From there, they can easily look for the status of their claims within a much lesser time. Ultimately, it enhances the productivity of the billing and coding staff.
Scan Your Documents/Cut the Paperwork
There are many EOBs in a medical billing company. And when it’s time to verify any information or look for a document, one spends so much time finding it in the piles of paper. So, an easy solution to minus the huge paperwork and hassle is getting a scanner.
Imagine the time you can save when one doesn’t have to move boxes and hunt them down. A scanner can help you cut the time to a few minutes. In the time of need, the medical biller can easily call out the required paper on their workstation without calling out here and there.
Pay Attention to Patient Collections
As mentioned above, one of the crucial things that the front desk can do is to notify patients about their financial obligations. For instance, if a claim goes unheard over 120 days, your team must be ready to counter and inform the patient about the situation so you can move this payment in AR (Accounts Receivable).
Copayments, deductibles, everything should be timely received from patients to avoid any inconvenience afterward. Moreover, the staff must be vigilant enough to look for pending balance when a patient enters the medical facility.
Moreover, invest in automating the medical billing services. It will not only save time but also speed up the whole process from start to end. A medical practice can start by getting devices that reduce manual paperwork. For instance, a practice management system that digitalizes the patient statements is a good option.
Technology is the ultimate answer. And practitioner can utilize their saved time on other crucial tasks. So do the medical billers can pay attention to the outstanding claims.
Conclusion
There is just a scratch on the surface of the medical billing process. And if one goes there, there is a lot more to do to get claims timely submitted and reimbursed from payers. However, if medical billing services start from the above-mentioned tips, they can gradually see improvement in their collection rate.
