Physicians have enough on their plate without having to micromanage back-end office staff. That often happens when billing challenges start digging into your bottom line. If your office staff doesn’t keep up with coding changes, timely submission and requests for additional information with claims, or uses the wrong billing codes for reimbursement, your revenue cycle management (RCM) is negatively affected.
Common causes of RCM delays
One of the biggest hurdles facing physician’s practices today is timely reimbursement. Manual medical billing practices are rife with challenges. If your staff spends too much time manually checking on claims status it’s time to do something about it. Every time you check, it costs you money.
Delays caused by unfamiliarity in coding practices and inadvertent upcoding or bundling (or unbundling) services increase your accounts receivable (A/R) days, which negatively affect your reimbursement rates.
Do common errors plague your billing efforts? Do your treatment and diagnostic codes match? Have duplicate billing mistakes plagued your practice? Automated claims processing reduces such issues. According to Becker’s, adopting electronic claims management processes can save providers about $9 billion a year.[1]
Another common (and avoidable) error that results in claims denials is inadequate or inaccurate patient or insurance information. Reduce denials and A/R days with a professional medical billing service.
Another hurdle for physicians is the time. Time required to respond to queries from staff regarding treatments, procedures, or diagnostics for accurate billing and coding. You’re busy with your patients. You may not get to those queries for days. That in turn delays claims submissions and ultimately, reimbursement and, yes, A/R days. The issue compounds when rejections are not followed up in a timely manner.
Incorrect procedure codes compounded by insufficient documentation are another common error. Accuracy is yet another challenge, especially relevant for specialty practices such as orthopedics.
We know that physicians and their staff are busy. We know that billing practices are often relegated to staff members with no official training. Avoid costly mistakes that affect your bottom line.
Overcome challenges with professional outsourcing
Take the time to identify your practice’s billing challenges. Reduce delays and increase revenue. Turn to Precision Medical Billing to help you avoid those challenges. Healthy RCM means consistency – accurate coding, timely claims submissions processes, and follow-up. For information regarding your medical billing questions, contact us here.
[1] https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-coding-billing-and-collections/3-common-medical-billing-and-coding-challenges.html