When you look at the income of your practice as most businesses is affected by two factors your expenses and revenue. Although reducing your expenses is a good way to bring up income, it is also the quickest way to create poor morale with your employees and cause other issues if cuts are made improperly. The quickest way for any medical practice to generate more income is to collect the money that is already owed to them. The amount of low-lying fruit in most practices could easily double the income generated.
The complexity of managing the revenue for a medical practice is actually quite simple. Generally 80 percent of your claims are paid without question by the insurance payers. A properly setup system will provide you with a revenue stream that is consistent and predictable.
Physicians became physicians to practice medicine not run a business. DFHA's commitment to the physician is to help them to see and control what the people they hire to run their business are doing at a glance and nonintrusive way.
Some of the billing and collection frustrations physicians deal with include:
Writing off tens of thousands of dollars due to mistakes made or delays caused by their staff. (Ouch!)
Getting paid less than what insurance company allows because your fees are just not high enough. (Getting paid 100% on an EOB is usually not a good thing)
And everyone has heard of stories where front office staff has stolen hundreds of dollars every month for years from the practice. (Yes it really does happen)
Having a biller who only submits a claim once and doesn't know the concept of actually working for your money. (Collections is part of Billing)
Asking for a report from your billing system and receiving it after much delay or with a lot of verbal explanations from the staff. (The billing system should be accurate if not perfect)
The key to a good billing system is one that is transparent to the people who manage the billers of the services. At a glance you should be able to understand what was done on any particular day with your practices billing.
DFHA's objectives when helping a physician enhance their revenue are ensuring that the billing process in place is configured correctly, and that the staff is using the system effectively and efficiently. All of this should be controlled in a trackable, accountable way.
Billing System Configuration
We will ensure that your billing system is configured correctly for your practice. Verifying your fee schedules, making sure your insurance companies are setup correctly, making sure all the correct information goes out on the claims, sending electronic claims to payers who accept electronic. Making sure that the system is correct helps your staff produce error-free claims that get paid the first time.
Billing Workflow
There are basically five parts within a billing workflow. Each of these parts is no more or less critical than the other.
Capturing the charge information: Are your charges making it to the billers?
Handling copayments and over-the-counter payments: Are they handled properly?
Submitting the claims timely and correct the first time: How many days after the visit does it take for a claim to leave your office?
Posted mail payments and balancing: Does the amount in your computer system equal your bank deposit?
Accounts receivables and collections: How much is your AR right now?
If you are not sure about any of the above questions, you need to have a closer look at your billing procedures. However, if you are ready to increase your revenue contact us today!