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Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections Process

Jeff Smith September 8, 2016 Leave a Comment

Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections Process

In the webinar, “Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections” we discuss 5 areas of the revenue cycle management process in your chiropractic clinic that you need to evaluate to help you decide whether or not to outsource your billing and collections.

The areas include:

1.Billing and Collections Staff not adequately trained and educated

2.Billing and Collections Staff Not Utilizing Technology

3.Not Monitoring you’re Collection Metrics every month

4.Not Reviewing Total A/R every month

5.Not Monitoring Your A/R Metrics every month

To view a recording of the webinar you can go to the ChiroCode Institute website at

https://www.chirocode.com/webinars/Billing,%20Reimbursement%20&%20Collections/top-5-reasons-your-clinic-should-consider-outsourcing-it-s-billing-and-collections-process-29806.html

Filed Under: Accounts Receivable, Billing & Collections, Billing & Collections, Chiropractic, Eligibility & Benefits Verification, Revenue Cycle Management Tagged With: accounts receivable, Billing & Collections, chiropractic, revenue cycle management

9 Action Steps to Improve Time of Service Collections in a Chiropractic Clinic

Jeff Smith June 17, 2016 Leave a Comment

9 Action Steps to Improve Time of Service Collections in a Chiropractic Clinic

As we have talked about before, the billing and collections process in chiropractic clinics used to be fairly simple; Look at the patient’s insurance card, see what their office visit co-pay was, collect that amount from the patient and then send a claim to the insurance company for the balance.

However, we all know this process has become much more complicated for a number of reasons.  First of all, more and more patients now have high deductible plans, either through their employer’s group health plan or from public or private exchanges.  This means the patient is responsible for a larger share of the cost of their health care.  According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the amount a patient has to pay before the insurance company pays any portion has increased a staggering 255% since 2006.

Secondly, having more patients on deductible plans also makes it more difficult for the front desk person to know how much to collect from the patient at the time of service.  And, with 91% of patients wanting to know their payment responsibility upfront (according to the Consumer Healthcare Payments Survey 2015 commissioned by InstaMed), it also decreases the patient experience when the front desk person isn’t able to tell the patient how much they owe.

The third way the billing and collections process has become more complicated is that the way patients want to pay their health care bills has changed.  Most patients used to pay by cash or check, so the only real complications were having to make change at the front desk or dealing with returned checks.  Now patients want more flexibility and convenience in how and when they are able to pay their health care bill. Not only do patients want to pay more of their bills on-line (According to InstaMed 65% of consumers paid their non-healthcare bills on-line, 48% preferred to pay their healthcare bills on-line and 72% preferred an electronic payment method (credit card, debit card, ACH, etc.) for their healthcare bills.

So what action steps can your clinic take to make the Time of Service Collections in your clinic more efficient and effective?

1.      Verify the patient’s eligibility and benefits (including the balance of their deductible).

2.      Explain the patient’s eligibility and benefits to them.  Be an “Advocate” not a “Collector”.

3.      Accept credit card, debit cards, ACH, along with cash and checks as forms of payment.

4.      Have an on-line portal where your patients can pay their bill on-line.

5.      Set a goal of collecting 100% of co-pays at the time of service

6.      If the patient’s deductible has not been met, collect the entire amount of the visit.

7.      If the patient cannot pay the entire amount due, set a minimum dollar amount to collect.

8.      If the patient has met their deductible, collect the appropriate co-insurance amount.

9.      Put a note in the patient’s file if they have a past due balance and collect that amount at the time of service.

 

Filed Under: Chiropractic, Eligibility & Benefits Verification, Revenue Cycle Management Tagged With: Billing & Collections, chiropractic, revenue cycle management

Eligibility & Benefits Verification: Catalyst for an Efficient Billing and Collections Process

Jeff Smith June 3, 2016 Leave a Comment

Eligibility & Benefits Verification: Catalyst for an Efficient Billing and Collections Process

Verification

As I talked about in the last blog, the business side of health care has gone through some big changes in the last few years and will continue to change as we move forward into the future. That’s why it’s important that chiropractic clinics continue to be aware of these changes and how to perform the billing and collections processes in the most efficient and effective manner.

In the past, most patients had co-pays and they weren’t as likely to be switching health plans on a regular basis as they do now. Therefore, Eligibility & Benefits Verification wasn’t nearly as important as it is now.

With more and more patients moving from co-pay plans to deductible plans, chiropractic clinics need to build Eligibility & Benefits Verification into their billing and collections process. This will improve their time of service collections, as well as their clean claim rate.

It used to be that if a patient had a $250 deductible and the patient or the clinic didn’t know if the deductible had been met, the clinic wouldn’t have the patient pay anything at the time of service and then would submit the claim. With the small deductible the patient was much more likely to meet their deductible in a short period of time and the clinic would receive their payment without having to wait too long.

But, with today’s high deductible plans, the clinic is just “kicking the payment can down the road” when they don’t verify the patient’s eligibility and benefits to know whether or not the patient has met their deductible, which they likely have not.

In the past, when health plans weren’t nearly as complicated as they are today, I agree that it was the patient’s responsibility for knowing what their insurance benefits were. However, as the plans have become more complicated, even for those of us in health care, I believe it is now the clinic’s responsibility to verify and understand the patient’s benefits.  This not only helps the clinic’s billing and collections process, it also improves the patient experience.  As one group defines it, the clinic becomes more of an “advocate” for the patient rather than being a “collector.”

Verifying eligibility and benefits has become much more efficient as well. While calling on the telephone to verify a patient’s eligibility and benefits is still the required method for some payers, many payers and health plans now have web portals that providers can use to verify the patient’s eligibility and benefits, including the balance of their deductible.  Electronic claims clearinghouses also have portals that make it very efficient to do the verification on-line in real time.

Looking into the future I foresee a time when the EHR will be able to look at the appointment schedule for the next day and automatically run an eligibility verification report, in the middle of the night, and have the report waiting for the front desk person when they arrive in the clinic every morning.

So, no matter how you choose to perform the Eligibility & Benefits Verification, I strongly encourage you to build this task into your daily routine. Not only will it improve your billing and collections processes, it will also improve the experience your patient’s have each time they come into your clinic.

Filed Under: Chiropractic, Eligibility & Benefits Verification, Revenue Cycle Management Tagged With: billing, chiropractic, collections, eligibility & benefits verification, revenue cycle management

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Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections Process

In the webinar, “Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections” we discuss 5 areas of the revenue cycle management process in your chiropractic clinic that you need to evaluate to help you decide whether or not to outsource your billing and collections. The areas include: 1.Billing and Collections Staff not […]

New Development

Healthcare billing, and particularly CHIROPRACTIC billing has becoming increasing more complex.  Not only do doctors spend more and more time trying to "figure out" new carrier policies and changes, but they also put themselves at considerable risk when their accounts are no … Read More

Recent Posts

  • Top 5 Reasons Your Clinic Should Consider Outsourcing It’s Billing and Collections Process
  • 9 Action Steps to Improve Time of Service Collections in a Chiropractic Clinic
  • Cleaning Up Your Patient A/R … Win, Win, Win!
  • Eligibility & Benefits Verification: Catalyst for an Efficient Billing and Collections Process
  • It’s Not Your Mother’s Revenue Cycle Management Anymore

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