As an organization, it is imperative to stay up to date with the latest rules and regulations. The failure to do so can often cost your organization lost time through coding and uncollected revenue.
In this intricate landscape of healthcare, effective medical billing is one of the major requirements for financial stability and patient care. Not streamlining the medical billing process can lead to denials and negative patient experiences.
The failure to provide a smooth medical billing facility can lead to an increased risk of submitting the claims again. In 2022, the cost of medical denials soared up to 67%. It is advisable to adopt a strategic approach of optimizing documents for enhancing financial outcomes at the healthcare provider.
How to Streamline the Medical Billing Procedure?
The medical billing process is slightly complicated and varied. There are high chances of making mistakes in it, especially when you’re not streamlining it. Thus, here are some of the major strategies to follow to streamline the entire medical billing procedure:
Check that the Patient Data is Accurately Collected
Often, claim denials happen because of the inaccuracy in data during patient registration. Thus, it is extremely crucial to ensure that the patient data collected is accurate right from the initial stages.
It also covers information about the available insurance coverage. As a result, it helps in covering the patient registration application. Furthermore, accurate patient data also helps in reducing claim denials and provides faster reimbursements.
Focus on Clean Claim Rates
Medical billing procedures can contain a lot of errors or mistakes in information. If you check the wrong data, you can be sure that these claims will eventually be rejected. Before submitting the claims, the DME billing services should identify these errors.
It is advisable to have streamlined workflow analytics from the initial stages. This will help you understand where the errors are in terms of low clean claim rates. With the help of claim management software, it will be easier to stay up-to-date with the information. Furthermore, it will also help in optimizing information, assisting in clean claim proportion.
Submit Claims Every Day
One of the most efficient ways to ensure a smooth medical billing procedure is to submit the claims every day. This helps to avoid the risk of backlogs in claims, which need to be processed from time to time. Submitting the claims daily also helps to avoid the frequency of denials and rejections.
Daily claim submission also helps make things smooth and easier, for it prevents reimbursement delays. As a result, you also get an idea about the cash flow. The information received will further assist in budgeting and forecasting.
Minimize Coding Errors
Coding errors and incorrect modifiers can often lead to higher rejections and denials. Diagnosis codes can often be insufficient if the physician fails to document it. However, capturing accurate data by consulting the physician can help to enhance the billing procedure.
It is important to apply accurate modifiers to capture the full reimbursement procedure rather than a denied claim. There are also procedures to provide upcoding and undercoding at affordable rates. Before submitting the medical claims, it is always advisable to recheck and double-check the codes. You can connect with a medical billing company that helps in validating patient identity and eligibility.
Maintain Up-to-date Patient Files
Apart from correct patient data, it is also important to maintain the patient’s file up to date. The updated patient file must include information like contact details, name and address. During the claim filing process, it is important to verify the insurance information accurately.
It is often advisable that rather than doing it manually, the entire process can be automated. Automating patient information often ensures that it is 100% accurate. Moreover, automation also reduces the risk of manual errors. Amidst all this, it is important to check subscriber information and policy numbers accurately.
Conclusion
Outsourcing some parts of the medical billing procedure can always be helpful. However, when you outsource the same, it is advisable to only choose professionals. Not only will it help save time but also help to save efforts. Working with a reputed professional company ensures that there are no major errors in the filing.
While you consider outsourcing, you should always make it a point to check their reviews online. This will help you make the right decision in order to find a reliable company to outsource to.
In this case, you can also outsource other functions such as appointment scheduling and customer service. This will help to free up the time from doing any extra tasks.
