Prevent Medical Billing Mistakes In 4 Easy Ways

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Are constant errors in medical billing stopping you from getting paid on time? What you need to do is to rethink your medical billing strategy. Read about four easy ways you can use to avoid medical billing mistakes.

What does the denial rate of your hospital look like? If the claims denial rate of your practice is higher than 4% (considered an efficient benchmark by the MGMA), you may want to stop blaming payers for medical billing mishaps and start rethinking your medical billing strategy. Here are four steps you can take to immediately prevent the medical billing mistakes happening at your practice.

  1. Ensure that insurance is always verified

    The number one reason that most medical billing claims get denied is unverified insurance. Not ensuring that insurance is verified can cost you more in terms of money and time. This is why, your staff and you must be extremely careful that insurance is verified for both new as well as returning patients. Keep in touch with the insurance provider to check for the coverage periods, pre-existing condition exclusions, effective dates, copayments and deductibles. Try to avoid errors when a patient’s benefits or receiving services are not met by the plan’s benefits.

  2. Check for errors in patient information

    Recent research by the university of Minnesota has estimated that at least 30% to 40% of medical bills are filled with errors. Even a few simple inaccuracies in medical bills can lead to pesky billing denials. You can reduce these denials by making your staff familiarize with the patient chart and by double checking simple things like the patient’s name, whether the diagnosis code corresponds with the procedure that was performed and finally the policy number.

  3. Invest in a practice management system

    Try to automate as much of your medical billing process as possible, so as minimize human errors. You can achieve this with an efficient practice management system. But keep in mind that you cannot blame the system for problems, as the system will not post the charge or print reports for you. Give your staff adequate training to keep up with the demands of medical billing as well as develop habits and skills within the system. In case, your practice wants to perform more work with fewer resources, then a practice management system will prove to be very useful. With a practice management system in place, your staff can automate charge captures, manage practice tasks and scrub codes with ease.

  4. Reduce errors in coding

    Unbundling of codes, forgetting to enter the diagnosis code or lack of understanding of operative reports will stop you from getting paid on time. Coding to the highest level of understanding is important. You can use your practice management system to signal under-coded diagnoses. You could also facilitate a dialogue between your coders and billers to make sure that your billers are aware of what the codes should look like.

Have you given outsourcing medical billing and coding a thought? Outsourcing is a great way to focus on your core medical functions, reduce billing denials to a great extent and maximize efficiency in the overall billing process. Reduced costs and on-time reimbursements are some of the other value-adds that comes with outsourcing. At Outsource2india, we offer hospitals, clinics and healthcare centers with an extensive range of medical billing and coding solutions. As our partner, we can assure you of services that will drastically reduce your billing errors. Find out more about our medical billing and coding services.

Did you like reading this post? Would you outsource medical billing services or prefer to do it in-house? Let us know your views on outsourcing by leaving a comment in the box below. We, at Outsource2india love to hear from you!

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