Making sure that your receivables reach you on time is critical. Having a huge outstanding balance might look good on paper, but in reality unless you have an effective therapy billing process in place, many of these bills never get paid. In some cases they get paid so late that the administrative costs of following up exceed the payment itself.
A small mistake in your billing could also lead to rejection by the insurance companies, depriving you of hard earned money you can ill afford to lose. Sometimes it could also lead to fraud claims against you.
Correcting any loopholes in your billing system will save you thousands of dollars. It may seem very complicated but in reality just focusing on it for a little while can pay you huge dividends in the long run.
Check to see where your most common billing mistakes occur. Comparing your computerized report with a manually compiled one would tell you where the maximum rejections and denials occur. Then fixing this should be easy.
Communicate with the personnel involved in the billing about the problems. It might be a problem associated with the coding, in which case the coder could be consulted and a solution created. If it is a problem associated with a particular staff member, then evaluating his job responsibilities and correcting them, or in some cases even a reshuffling or reassigning responsibilities may be in order.
Many times billing mistakes occur due to the misunderstanding of the therapist’s instructions by the staff member involved. Confirm their understanding by asking them to repeat your instructions.
It cannot be overemphasized that denials play a key part in the overall health of your billing. Managing denials properly reflects positively on the revenues you generate in your practice. The effect of declined reimbursements by the insurance company and the cost of reclaiming them can cost your business more than just about any other expense. This can be addressed initially by adopting an error free billing process. The amount saved by adapting this process can be substantial.
One of the key factors that help to cut down on billing mistakes is training. If the errors in your billing system have been identified and changes have been made, it is essential that it is reviewed with the staff involved. Make sure that all the changes have been documented and the staff understands it so that the same errors do not occur again.
Furthermore, it is important to make sure that a review of your billing process is conducted frequently. This will not only ensure that your billing process is in place it will also mean that there is no stress during an audit.
As a therapy professional it is essential that you do not try to take care of the billing all by yourself. Doing too many things at the same time means that you lose focus on your core skills and that is treating and caring for your patients. Using professional therapy billing software or even getting an outside agency to take care of your billing will ultimately save you money, time and reduce stress. We invite you to take a closer look at our flagship online therapy billing solution, the Automated Medical Assistant, which is also the cornerstone tool that we use for our outsourced billing services at Advanced Billing Solutions. In either case, contact us with any questions and we will be happy to help you find a solution to your needs.
