Medical accounts receivable are the money that needs to be collected for the treatment and services offered by Medical Billing Service. It is the credit line granted by the provider for the services it provides. The funds are owed to the insurance provider or by the patient. It is crucial to ensure the efficiency of the revenue cycle since the longer that the money remains unpaid the lower the chance for healthcare providers to be paid. On average, after 120 days, a healthcare facility will only be able to collect 10 cents for every dollar. This post is provided by Medcare (MSO) Medical Billing Services.

Naturally, healthcare providers need to be proficient in managing accounts receivable. This particular aspect of medical services is a major factor in cash flow and revenue cycle management. This could lead to numerous other problems, including slow processing of payments or the billing and invoicing errors, incorrect bookkeeping; overly frequent follow-ups; inconsistent opening balances; bad debts, and more.

Medical Billing Services

The process involved in accounting receivables services can differ in different practices. Hospitals and clinics with larger facilities have higher cash flows and, consequently, a greater impact on revenue cycles. In this blog, we will examine the different ways that account receivable services can be simplified and made more efficient.

Analyze Your Accounts Receivable (AR) In Detail

An ongoing analysis of your receivables plays a crucial role in maintaining your medical accounts receivables in good shape. The analysis should be conducted keeping certain factors in mind. This includes keeping track of the “days in AR” and the bucket that has aged. The average days of AR will provide you with an estimate of the amount of time required to get the balance. The aging bucket involves making a bracket in the receivable’s terms of age, such as receivables with a period of 0-30 days, 31-60 days, and 61-90 days of age. This lets you monitor receivables with old bills in a more systematic way.

Prioritize Insurance Eligibility Verification.

A simple way to ensure you are keeping track of the growing receivables in your accounts is to be in control of the process of confirming insurance. If the insurance verification states that there isn’t coverage, you have to take cash from the patient beforehand. So, if your insurance verification fails and the treatment cannot be administered, the money is transferred to the receivables section. The best method to ensure your insurance verification is reliable is to use software and third-party assistance. It is essential to verify cross-checks on important details like coverage date as well as co-pay amounts as well as out-of-network coverage, the amount part of your deductible was consumed, and so on.

Identify The Denial Reasons

It is widely believed that finding the cause of denials after denial is similar to locking the stable door after the horse has gone. This may be true, but an analysis of the post-denial process always aids in keeping accounts receivables at levels. This analysis could shed light on what’s wrong and what must be fixed quickly. When the change is made, it prevents the growth of accounts receivable. 

There have been cases of denials occurring due to reasons like inaccurate data for patients, inaccurate claims, duplicate or pre-authorization mistakes or errors in charge entry or credentialing issues, lack of documentation, etc. Knowing this can prevent another incident and also stop the account receivables in the bud from growing.

Set Payment Expectations And Collect Patient Portions Promptly

One method that has been proven to stop growing accounts receivables is to ensure that everything is done correctly at the start. It is best to do this by informing patients of the financial responsibility prior to scheduled appointments and collecting their money no earlier than when they enter. This prevents money from slipping out the door and onto receivables’ books. According to research, if collecting is not completed up front, there’s a 30% likelihood of not being able to recover the money in the future. 

The upfront collection of payments will bring one part of the AR process to a close. It also helps in tracking efforts during the latter phases of an AR cycle. In some cases, patients might not be able to pay for the entire bill following treatment. In these cases, the providers need to provide some payment options. This will secure some repayment and lessen your burden with receivables.

Charge Entry

Charge entry isn’t directly connected to the management of accounts receivables; however, it does have an impact directly on it. In medical billing terms, it is the process that medical professionals use to record the services provided to patients. The list is then codified for claims submission. An incorrect charge entry can lead to an incorrect code and can result in the rejection of the payment. 

The due amount is then transferred into the logbook for account receivables. On average, 1 percent of the net charges are not properly recorded because of inconsistencies between the charge entry process and the Coding. For hospitals that have a large annual income, this could be an enormous amount. In some cases, the gap can trigger audits, especially if it results in the payers being overcharged. This could result in penalties.

Claims Submission

After capturing and codifying charges, claims must be sent to the creditors for payment collection. A mistake in this process could result in a claim being pushed to accounts receivable. Other than coding errors, There is a different kind of error that is quite common at this point. These mistakes are because of the existence of multiple insurance policies. This could cause various issues, such as the insurance company failing to receive the right invoice from Medicare which can result in not receiving payments, a patient collection that is not included in Medicare, and other such.

Outsourcing Account Receivable Management

The most effective method of streamlining the management of accounts receivable services is outsourcing it. Through outsourcing, it’s possible to access an entire team of accounts receivable specialists whose experience in the field has provided them with the expertise and expertise to handle accounts receivable services with high effectiveness. The most significant benefit of employing an outside partner to handle medical billing for accounts receivable is that they can address the most important issues, such as non-paid claims, rejected claims, and unpaid claims. This assists in keeping the number of accounts receivable under control and cash flow in the line. In addition, they can assist in identifying issues that are persistent, such as code errors, billing mistakes, and operational costs.

Conclusion

Since outsourcing allows you to manage every aspect of the management of accounts receivables, It is logical to outsource medical account receivable bill-paying to offshore partners. But when choosing the right partner, you have to be cautious. Examine their processes, personnel, technology, and achievements. So you can collaborate with the right business and ensure the security of your accounting receivable management service.

Who We Are and What Makes Us an Expert?

This post is provided by Medcare (MSO) Medical Billing Services. We are a reputable back-office service provider that can meet various medical service needs. This includes medical claims management, medical billing, medical coding revenue cycle management, and more. One of our areas of expertise is medical accounts receivables. We have developed a method that improves the rate of collection and ensures faster processing. For more information on Medcare Medical Billing Services as well as our offerings, call +1 800 640 6409, or go to website https://medcaremso.com/services/medical-billing-services/.