Improving your practice collection is just one component of effective revenue cycle management. But if any provider overlook this key step then they risk losing their owed and losing out on much needed revenue.
Despite resuming in-person visits and elective surgeries, many practices still struggle with reduced patient volume and the resulting decrease in practice revenue.
Tips for an effective collections:
Note Patient Insurance and Contact Information
Whenever patient call for appointment, front desk staff should collect current, complete information or give patients the option to mail or email it instead or your office staff can create an account in your practice management software so that they can upload their documents safely in their account.
Ensuring accurate insurance and contact information will allow staff to verify coverage and follow up with the patient throughout the treatment and patient collections processes.
Insurance Eligibility Verification
Insurance eligibility verification is the most important and the first step in the medical billing process. Research confirms that most of the claims are denied or delayed due to inadequate or incorrect coverage information provided by the patients during visits and current coverage information not updated by the office staff.
Patient Responsibility Payment Collection
The best way to collect patient balances is to require patients to cover copays and patient responsibility at check-in.
To ensure patients are aware of this requirement, create a medical office payment policy. Then, include a patient responsibility agreement in your check-in paperwork for patients to sign. The purpose of this policy is to provide patients — and your staff — clear guidelines for collections.
Payment Methods Options
Increase the probability of collecting balances at check-in by offering a variety of payment methods, including cash, credit/debit card, or check. Having a convenient and easy-to-use online payment tool in your patient portal can also facilitate patient payments.
Follow-up
Persistence is key to improving collections. Develop a practical plan for contacting patients who do not make timely payments and create a script for staff to follow. Your staff should be prepared to request payment in full, discuss payment options, and offer a payment plan if needed.
Payment Posting
Payment posting is a significant step in the medical billing process because errors in payment posting can detract from the accuracy of accounts receivable (A/R) reports and foster mistrust in patients who receive wrong statements. Depends on a medical billing partner to post payments can give your practice peace of mind that any potential errors will be caught and resolved.
Are You Ready to Get Billing?
Want to hire an experts in Medical billing and coding for your Practice? You are at the right place, what you need now is a partner who can finish out the rest of the work and make the technology and implementation just as simple. That’s what the best medical billing company like Medisys Data Solutions Inc. can do. If you’re ready to get started, schedule a meeting with our Medical Billing Manager from filling out enquiry form from our website!
