The front desk staff in any practice plays an important role in checking in patients, collecting data, and verifying insurance. But there’s more happening than meets the eye. Most of the medical billing process is usually performed in the back of the office, so it’s imperative to have the best team. If you want your back-office team to do a great job and improve your revenue, here are five simple strategies to try.
1. Train back-office staff on setting up payment plans
The front desk employees are usually the first ones to see the need to set up payment plans for self-paying patients or those with outstanding balances. However, the real arrangement is conducted by the back-office employees. And it’s important for these plans to be fair and consistent.
It can be a great idea to have back-office employees who understand how to set up payment plans, so train them. This will also help reduce pressure on your front desk employees to make decisions about waving payments. It is not uncommon to find employees who let emotions cloud their judgment and decisions under immense pressure.
2. Reconcile forms and claims every day
It is important to seek clarification from various stakeholders as soon as a question about the services offered arises. Your medical billing specialists should be well conversant with the appropriate modifiers. Reconciling forms and claims every day ensures you’re submitting clean forms. And clean forms are paid faster because they stand up to audits.
3. Analyze denials
Your back-office team can take time to analyze denial claims and create processes that address them. An in-depth analysis, for instance, can identify issues with modifiers, outdated codes, and other issues which slow down your medical billing processes.
In the long run, tracking denials will help you reduce mistakes and get rewarded with prompt and higher payments. At the same time, it will help you develop processes for rectifying and refilling denied claims on time.
4. Check on your account receivables every day
Although most claims are usually settled within 30 days of submission, some may take longer. As such, it is important to follow up on aging reports and review any claim that’s more than 30 days old.
5. Follow up on patient balances
Although your front-office employees inform patients about their balances, it can be a great idea to have someone at the back-office call them to ask for payment. Most practices outsource this task, but making regular follow-ups yourself could speed up the process.
The medical billing process isn’t a walk in the park. It needs collaboration between front-office and back-office staff. If you do it right, you can improve the process and boost your revenue.
Advanced Reimbursement Solutions wants to improve your billing process. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with a specialist in Phoenix or Wilmington.