An improved medical billing process helps ensure continuous cash flow for a healthcare provider. Enhancing every step of the process ensures all that there are no loopholes in the process that can hold up payments. Since optimizing the medical billing process on a continuous basis helps to improve revenues, the following are the tips to improve the medical billing process:
- Flexible Transition to New Technology
The medical billing staff must adapt to evolving technologies to stay ahead of the competition in the healthcare sector. New technologies make it easier to simplify processes as well as save on time and resources. And to embrace technology seamlessly, billers must be trained every now and then to adapt to new technological advancements.
- Verifying and Updating Patient Documents
Patient demographic information may not remain the same and hence needs to be verified every time a patient visits the physician. Details regarding patient address, insurance plan, insurance company details etc. must be re-checked to prevent information inaccuracies which would lead to claiming denials. By keeping patient details updated, errors due to information inaccuracies can be prevented.
- Analysing Electronic Submission Reports
Submission reports contain information about the claim details such as the date of submission, the reason for denial and so on. By reviewing submission reports that are denied by payers, medical billers address and correct issues that led to denial and re-submit once again. These reports make it easier to investigate the reason for claim denial during the medical billing process.
- Timely Handling of Denials
Some of the reasons for claim denials can be due to coding errors, inaccurate patient information or a fault made by the insurance provider. Sending an appeal to the insurance provider and following up with the claim will speed up the denial management process. The medical billers need to resolve the issue in the claim if any and resubmit it within the submission deadline set. Late submission of denied claims will affect the medical billing process. Some healthcare providers decide to utilize medical billing services from third party providers to prevent losing track of claim submission deadlines.
- Keeping Track Of Fee Schedules
Fee schedules provide medical practices with details regarding the amount that must be paid by the insurance provider. Sometimes, these insurance providers make mistakes and end up reimbursing for a lower rate. This affects medical practice since they would not receive the total payment from the insurance provider. The revenues would fall as a result. To prevent such losses, healthcare providers must keep track of their fee schedules and monitor the number of payments received.
- Monitoring KPIs
Measuring medical billing performance indicators such as the number of clean claims, the number of denials, filing of claims with resolved errors etc. help enhance process efficiency for medical practices. These key performance indicators can be compared with the productivity benchmarks set according to other competitors in the healthcare field. In this way, the medical practice can get an insight into the areas they are lagging behind and take steps to improve.
An enriched medical billing process promises maximized cash flow. To achieve it, some medical practices outsource medical billing services to third party vendors. These outsourcing providers are well-equipped to render the best quality medical billing services for healthcare providers. Improving quality control procedures, taking advantage of automated technologies and effective handling of delinquent claims are a few ways to ramp up the process of medical billing.
Good article. A better medical billing process with fewer denials and errors means more time for patient treatment which can improve patient satisfaction.