7 Ways to Improve Your Medical Billing Process
Are you unsatisfied with the efficiency of your current medical billing process? While it may not seem like a big part of the system, the medical billing process is quite crucial. Lacking a good medical billing process can affect your business and your reputation.
Below, we’ll show you how to change your business strategy to accommodate a better medical billing process. We’ve written down seven different methods of doing this. Continue reading to learn what you need to do to improve your medical billing system.
7 Ways to Improve Your Medical Billing Process
Table of Contents
1. Change Your Business Strategy: Clear Up the Collections Process Upfront
Most medical services can be quite expensive. Even though your patients know this, they’d want to save money as much as possible. Thus, they’ll always refer to their health insurance to spend less on the medical services you offer.
Before you receive patients, you must make sure that they know their responsibility for paying for the services you provide. Clarify what these responsibilities are upfront. You can write the details on the payment system on the paperwork a patient fills out on or before the first visit.
You can also put up the details on a bulletin board or sign in the reception area. Make sure it’s in a place where all visitors can see and read it. This way, they can’t use the excuse of being ignorant about your policy.
2. Maintain and Follow Up Patient Information
The first thing you must do when you receive patients is to collect details and information. When you collect the details of a first-time patient, ask for a copy of a photo ID and their insurance card. Keep these in your files and use them to verify the information they write down on their patient forms.
If the patient isn’t a first-time visitor, have your staff confirm their insurance info, anyway. They may have changed their jobs or insurance carrier or got married since they last came to you. They may have also upgraded their insurance and gotten lower deductibles.
Others may now have less expensive insurance with more out-of-pocket costs. Always verify these things first, and then explain what they mean. You don’t want your patient to get surprised by a higher bill once they reach the payment stage.
Remember that bad data can also lead to life-threatening mistakes. Every aspect of healthcare services is vital to the patient’s health. Make sure all your records are complete and detailed.
3. Follow Up on Inquiries
Your billing department must be in constant communication with insurance companies and patients. As we mentioned, people in it must always verify and update patient information. It’s also their job to conduct follow-ups to keep track of patient inquiries and concerns.
The same applies to any inquiries from the patients’ insurance companies. In your business strategy, including a solid follow-up procedure. It must secure, organize, manage, and maintain all billed services and accounts receivable.
A good follow-up procedure will help keep a steady flow of revenue to your establishment. It will also help you recover from overdue payments without hassle. You’ll also reduce the amount of time that accounts have outstanding balances.
If there are any missing claims, the follow-up procedure should find and handle them ASAP. This helps you avoid delayed payments, which is a big issue in medical billing. Finally, your follow-up process will help recover pending claims that require more information.
4. Keep Patients Involved in the Billing Process
An excellent method of building a better business is to get feedback from your customers. Ask them to speak up about any ambiguities or concerns in their bills. Doing this can help you create more accurate, correct, and punctual bills.
Let’s say you verify a patient’s details and learn that he changed his health insurance provider and plan. His new health insurance plan may mean that he must pay larger out-of-pocket expenses. Explain to him what it means before he undergoes the service.
5. Automate Basic Systems for Medical Billing
Automation is the key to improve your business, including its medical billing process. When it comes to technology, don’t let your business get left behind. Look into getting medical billing software programs for your billing department.
Start upgrading your tools and tech, even in the medical billing department. You want to automate the most routine and repetitive tasks as much as you can. This way, your employees can focus on patient-centric and personalized services.
6. Dispute Denied Claims for Health Insurance
Medical billers aren’t only issuers of bills. They are also problem solvers when it comes to denied claims. Their jobs don’t only include following up on claims but disputing them, as well.
Sometimes, even though they code and file a claim right, it can get denied. This is why you must stay in communication with patients and insurance providers. You must also learn to scrutinize a bill and notice discrepancies, which can affect your revenue.
7. Ask for Help From a Professional Medical Biller
Last but not least, get an expert medical biller to help you out. Are you having trouble with tricky conditions, situations, or programs? Don’t be afraid to outsource the complex work and leave it to the pros.
In 2018 in the US, 91.5% of the population had health insurance coverage. However, not all of them knew what to do. Even employees of some medical billing companies weren’t aware of all the steps involved in it.
If you’re new to the business, add a medical billing expert to your team. He or she can help you figure out the best medical billing process that works with your business plan. He or she can also give junior employees insider tips on the best ways to handle and manage the medical billing process.
Start Your Billing
Every business strategy that involves medical billing should be transparent and open. Yet, don’t forget to improve the other aspects of your business strategy, as well. Ensure every factor works well and is in harmony with your other business processes.
Do you want to keep reading other guides related to medical billing? We’ve got a ton of other helpful posts and guides for you to check out, so visit them today.
