Knowing your financial metrics and utilizing the data you acquire to boost practice income is key to building a successful financial future for your medical business. Effective revenue cycle management with medical billing and coding companies includes a lot of efforts to increase collections.
The net collection rate of practice is fundamentally a performance statistic; It assesses how well the practice collects all legitimate payment sources for services, which is usually the amount owing after all-payer contract adjustments have been made.
A practice’s net collection rate will be low if it has trouble collecting income due to bad debt, late filings, coding problems, or claim underpayments.
How to Increase Your Net Collection Rate?
If your net collection rate isn’t up to balance, the good news is that you can boost it by focusing on patient interaction and keeping a closer eye on posted insurance payments. To increase net collection, take into account the following:
Make Use Of Point-Of-Service Collections On The Front End
Establish a goal of collecting 100% copayments and, if possible, deductibles at the time of service. This necessitates appointment reminders that the copayment or deductible must be paid at the time of the visit.
Invest In Patient Education
Consider creating a patient booklet or quick-reference document to explain the in and out of insurance payments and why they may be financially responsible for the majority of the treatments they receive.
Include contact information for the practice’s participating insurers so that patients can contact them with specific questions regarding their coverage. Ascertain that someone from the practice is always ready to answer financial questions and is well-equipped. This may necessitate more staff training, but it will pay off in terms of increased collections.
Make Payment Choices Available To Patients
Accept cash, cheques, debit cards, and credit cards as forms of payment. Patients should also be able to pay via the patient portal, the practice’s website, and the office when they check in.
Calculate your net collection rate and find out the problem. Is the payer paying according to the agreed-upon rate? Is the payer consistently refusing to pay for a service for no apparent reason? Continue digging if nothing comes up. Is it difficult for the practice to submit claims promptly? Does an EHR glitch cause a billing error? Is a recurring coding error the source of denials? Do front-end employees update demographic and insurance information at each appointment to ensure that claim filings and administration go smoothly?
There are a variety of reasons why a net collection rate is low. Finding the source of the problem will enable the practice to take proactive measures to improve collections and become more financially stable.
Must Handle Claims Correctly
Did you realize that nearly 80% of medical bills contain mistakes? Many of these claims are easily refused due to the strictness of insurance policy payments. The insurer will not compensate you if your system fails to promptly receive and handle these denials. As a result, make sure you have resources to manage denial management in a proactive manner. Your principal focus is to reduce the number of denied claims. If you must make denials, reprocess them within a week.
Choose A Robust Medical Billing Software
Is it still possible for you to handle claims on your own or with the help of your team? If No, consider switching to a more effective medical billing and coding company to avoid an uphill battle. Trace your pending bills, recognize those payers who haven’t paid, and automate the process of addition of late fees to their bills, will help to speed up your collections process. This all-encompassing strategy streamlines your claims processing. However, it will save you money and time in the long run. 90% of medical billing and coding companies now use cloud-based software. We recommend that you do it as well. To get more information about EHR software, take a look at benefits of EHR software.
What Is The Role Of Medical Billing And Collections Companies?
Value-based care programs, shifting payer fee schedules, employee turnover, government rules, a lack of training and resources, and high-deductible health plans are all causes of generating less revenue. It’s not simple to stay financially healthy in a challenging regulatory climate. It necessitates an understanding of how to get paid for your services, from dealing with claim rejections to improving denial management and underpayments to following through on unpaid invoices.
Many practices collaborate with medical billing and coding companies to boost profitability. Practices must also keep up-to-date payer fee schedules, complete secondary insurance claims, and verify precise coding to avoid low payments. A medical billing and coding services can assist you in collecting every dollar you’re entitled to in the following ways:
Accurate Payment Posting
Payment posting is a critical phase in the medical billing process because errors in posted payments can skew the accuracy of accounts receivable (A/R) reports and inculcate distrust in patients who receive incorrect statements.
Using a medical billing partner to post payments can provide your practice piece of mind by ensuring that any possible issues are identified and improved.
Tracking and Lowering A/R Days in A/R
The number of days an invoice is outstanding until it is collected is referred to as days in A/R. It’s a crucial indicator to measure because if you don’t collect payments, your margins will suffer, and you’ll write off more and more patient accounts receivable.
You may determine how many days you have in A/R by calculating the average daily charges for the period you want to track. Add the listed charges for your chosen period, subtract credits obtained, and then divide by the number of days in that period to get your average daily costs. Then divide your overall receivables by your average daily charges. Aim for 30 to 40 days in A/R for your practice. A medical billing and coding companies can assist you in tracking and improving your KPI.
Reworking Of Medical Claims
A medical billing service can tag a claim with a denial or follow-up reason code, make necessary claim adjustments, and resubmit an “updated claim” based on payer criteria as soon as it is refused or partially paid. A medical billing and coding company can help you manage your healthcare claims by reducing claim rejections and denials, which impede reimbursements. It can assist you in avoiding the following common reasons for refusal:
- Claims that are duplicated
- Eligibility
- Payer ID is missing or incorrect.
- Invalid diagnosis codes
Your billing partner can assist you in building best practices to help you face fewer denials and apply specialty-specific knowledge to increase your clean claims after you’ve identified the source of the problem.
Turnaround Time on Claim Submission
A medical billing and coding company can help your clinic achieve faster reimbursement by ensuring that claims are completed accurately on the front end. It can work through any clearinghouse rejections and submit claims after charges have been submitted.
A Collaboration to Improve Your Cash Flow
Medical billing and coding companies will help you increase practice revenue and meet your financial objectives by providing skilled staff knowledgeable in specialty-specific invoicing. A specialized team will handle back office and billing functions and rework denials and rejections daily, verify that claims are submitted accurately, send patient statements, collection letters, and more.
A Medical Billing Audit Can Help You Collect More Money
A thorough audit might reveal areas where your billing process needs to be improved. It should be able to spot errors and offer actionable recommendations and solutions. You can try to enhance medical practice collections by analyzing the strengths and inadequacies of your billing department.
How BellMedEx Assist You?
Working with a trustworthy, professional medical billing company is one of the best methods to improve your net collection rate. BellMedEx can help your practice enhance net collections by speeding up claim submissions and reducing claim denials, freeing up time for your staff to provide the best care and service to patients.
