It is crucial to receive payments quickly for better AR management and not let too many claims get over 120 days. Accounts receivable for your medical billing companies in Houston practice can add up to thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although there are many pieces to the puzzle in getting a claim paid quickly and front desk plays a very important role. Getting a claim paid starts at the front desk because it is the job of the front desk officers to make sure they get good information.
The front desk staff of a medical practice should also get all the required documents such as insurance cards. Your medical office staff should also make sure that the patient filled out the registration form completely. On top of this, it is critically important to verify insurance and coverage of the patients visiting your medical practice, and this too is mostly done by the front desk staff. Also, when patients visit your medical office, they should be informed about how much their insurance will cover and what they might have to pay.
Medical Practice:
Now it is common knowledge that physician offices are busy places and the medical staff doesn’t necessarily have enough time to do the follow-up that is essential to get claims paid. Follow-up is vital to a profitable practice so you have to make sure that it is regularly done. If there are any outstanding claims that are over 120 days, you must start working on them now for better AR management.
When it comes to patient collections your most effective tool is your front desk checkout staff. You need to ensure that your practice’s front desk staff not only collect the copayment at the time of service but collect any balances that are currently due. It is one of the billing best practices to duly note why a balance wasn’t collected when the patient was in your office. This will help you identify the reasons for poor AR management. IT will also reduce the number of AR days in the future.
For faster payments and better AR management, medical practices can partner up with billing companies. Fortunately, there are many medical billing companies in Houston, TX, and other US cities so you can select a suitable one from these. Physicians can outsource medical billing services from one of the top companies and get the benefits like faster payments and better AR management.
How Banks Realized They Needed Better Risk and Compliance Management Technology
Medical Billing Companies
- Waystar
- CureMD
- CareCloud
- BillingFreedom
-
ChartLogic
Appealing Denied Medical Billing Claims
When claims get denied by payers, it is crucially important to appeal the denied claims to get the payments. However, the appeals process can be a very time-taking one because of the processes involved. Also, appealing claims according to due process is the key to receive payments against denied claims. For instance, filing a medicare appeal involves five levels in Part A and Part B appeals process. So it is important to properly understand the process before filing an appeal and a medical billing expert will not only understand but also file appeals accordingly. Moreover, a medical biller should make all appeal requests in writing and file all requests on time, and that too with the appropriate entity.
It is also necessary to attach all the required documentation as well with the denied claim appeals. And if the payer requests more documents regarding your appeal, these documents must be provided promptly. Some of the healthcare providers do not dedicate proper time to studying claim denials and filing appeals and understandably so.
Medical Billing and Coding:
This is because it is not the primary task of medical office staff to deal with medical billing and coding. Private practices can outsource medical billing services from a billing company. It is important to ensure that the company will not only take care of medical billing and coding, but also appeal the denied claims. However, it is crucial to partner up with one of the best medical billing companies to get the best results. In this article, we will list a few questions to ask billing companies you are considering for your practice because it can be a bit tricky to choose the best one for your practice from so many companies. First, let’s take a look at some more benefits of outsourced medical billing services.
- It costs less when you outsource medical billing services as compared to hiring billing staff in your medical office.
- Best medical billing companies in the United States will tend to follow the industry best practices and protocols to safeguard patient data from hackers and data leakage.
- Compliance with the everchanging regulations in the healthcare industry is important but it might not be easy for small practices, but top billing companies will ensure compliance.
Questions to Ask Billing Companies
- Will you manage denials?
- Will you send us reports?
- Can you provide references?
- What is your HIPPA compliance level?
Medical Billing Companies
- AthenaCollector
- ChartLogic
- BillingFreedom
- eClinicalWorks
- CureMD
- Medical Billers and Coders (MBC)
- MTBC PracticePro
Importance of Submitting an Accurate Claim
An accurate claim, also known as a clean claim, is a medical claim submitted without any errors or other issues. This also includes complete documentation to avoid claim rejections or denials. Sometimes a billing claim can get denied when even a small piece of information or the information. That is normally not required while submitting claims is missed.
For instance, when the patient is a child and he has coverage from his parents. So in this case, demographics information of the child as well as their insurance subscriber will be required. Filling in the complete information while submitting medical claims is of utmost importance.
This information includes facility information, health care professional details, provider & NPI information, billing address, tax ID number, etc. You will also need the details such as place of service and date of service. On top of this, there must be an accurate use of medical codes and suitable modifiers when required. While submitting a claim a medical biller should make sure that there is additional documentation whenever required by the health plan. Furthermore, to avoid claim denials, health care providers must bill the providers within one year after they provided the service.
A large number of denials will negatively affect your accounts receivable and in turn your practice revenue. A number of medical practices struggle with submitting an accurate claim. This is because the medical office staff is busy with patient care and can’t properly focus on medical billing. Medical practices can partner up with one of the medical billing service companies in their area that will deal with medical billing and coding.
However, it is of great importance to select one of the top medical billing companies for your practice to minimize claim rejections. As a matter of fact, there are numerous billing companies that provide services in the United States. So, it can get a bit tricky to choose the right one for your medical practice. We have listed a few questions below that you can ask the shortlisted companies before signing up for one.
Questions to Ask Billing Companies
- What will it cost?
- Can you provide references?
- Will you send payment reminders?
- Will you manage denials?
- How experienced are your billers?
- Will you send us reports?
- What’s your HIPPA compliance level?
