Steps to Better Billing
Your medical practice has payroll to meet and bills to pay. So it’s critical
to get cash in the door and deposited in the bank in a timely manner. By
making adjustments in your billing procedures, your practice may be able to
enhance collections and reduce denied claims.
Head Off Delays
Making some changes in the timing of your billing workflow may cut down on
errors and the need for costly overtime. Does your staff normally process
charges at the end of the week or over a few days at month’s end? Switching
to lower volume daily processing may prove much more efficient.
To implement this change, physicians and other providers will have to
complete their charge tickets (or encounter forms) before the end of each
day -- or better, immediately after every patient encounter. Listing the
diagnostic codes that your practice commonly uses on the charge ticket will
facilitate accurate coding and reduce the time your staff needs to enter the
charge data into your billing system. After appropriate review of the daily
charge entries, it shouldn’t be difficult for your billing staff to convert
the entries to claims and submit them to payers within a day or two of the
patient encounter. Faster claims processing should result in accelerated
receipt of payments, as well as timely notice of claims denials and other
problems that require resolution.
Keep Things Moving
Your staff may already process incoming checks on a daily basis. If
possible, they should also handle notices of denied claims and patient
correspondence regarding their bills by the end of the day received.
Promptly entering denials and correspondence into your billing system should
make tracking the appeal or other action on each item more efficient.
You might also have your staff review every denial within a period that you
set, for example, five business days of receipt. By tracking the success
rates of appeals, your staff should become better at choosing items to
dispute.
Pay Attention to Open Accounts
The likelihood of collection diminishes as accounts age. Setting up
automatic prompts to alert your staff to problem receivables will allow them
to follow up on no-activity accounts on a regular basis. For example, you
might choose to flag no-activity on a 30-to-60-day cycle and have your staff
give priority to overdue accounts with the highest dollar amounts.
Health Care Commentaries is
provided by Somerset’s
Health Care Team
for our clients and other interested persons upon request. Since
technical information is presented in generalized fashion, no final
conclusion on these topics should be made without further review. For
additional information on the issues discussed, please contact a member
of our Health Care Team. This
document is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for
the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the
taxpayer.
Somerset CPAs,
P.C.
3925 River Crossing Parkway, Third Floor
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240
317.472.2200 • 800.469.7206 • FAX 317.208.1200
www.somersetcpas.com
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