Until 1998, nurse center billing was quite an easy thing to do since skilled nurse facilities (SNFs) could bill separately for their service. Since 1998, after the Balance Budget Act came into effect, several things about how SNFs claim their reimbursement have changed. The points below will outline the changes:
Challenges of Skilled Nursing Facility Billing
Producing SNF claims as part of consolidated billing requires the knowledge of codes as also familiarity with what is covered by Medicare A and what’s not. If something is not covered by Medicare A, then it may be covered by Medicare B. The SNF has to identify that and bill it separately.
On the other hand, payment on per diem basis means a fixed amount CMS pays to SNFs under Medicare A with which SNFs pay contracted nursing service providers for their services.
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Now SNFs have to produce their claim as part of consolidated billing under the Prospective Payment System (PPS)
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SNFs are paid by Medicare A on a per diem basis
Our Pennsylvania billers and coders offer a whole range of medical billing solution from physicians looking to manage their small to medium scale practices, their compliance to HIPAA guidelines, can actually streamline your processes better.
Located in cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Allentown, Erie and Reading, in fact many Pennsylvania billers also take care of medical billing processes of surrounding states where billers are not available with the required experience.
Specialized Medical Billing Services in Pennsylvania
Our specialized medical billing services in Pennsylvania extend across Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and Reading, supporting healthcare providers throughout the state and neighboring regions. Our experts conduct thorough revenue cycle analyses to identify and address efficiency gaps while maintaining strict HIPAA compliance.
With a deep understanding of state regulations and reimbursement policies, our team ensures practices optimize their billing processes while providing superior patient service. We continuously monitor legislative changes affecting healthcare reimbursement to maintain optimal revenue flow for practices of all sizes.
Pennsylvania Medical Billing Specialists Drive Practice Success
Our Pennsylvania medical billing specialists deliver comprehensive solutions for practice revenue optimization. Through strategic coding, proactive claims management, and systematic follow-up processes, we help practices improve collections by 20%.
MBC’s certified team combines advanced software expertise with proven billing strategies to streamline operations and reduce administrative burden. By maintaining rigorous privacy standards while maximizing reimbursement efficiency, we enable healthcare providers to focus on patient care while ensuring sustainable financial growth. This focused approach helps Pennsylvania practices navigate federal cost-reduction initiatives while maintaining strong revenue performance.
Nursing Facilities are exposed to the below problems
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Inaccuracy of codes applied leading to rejection of claims
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Insufficiency of knowledge of items covered by Medicare A and B
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Fixed or per diem payments for services not accommodating cost borne by the nursing facility adequately - given that there is a degree of cost elasticity in the range of services offered by facilities, which the fixed rates often fail to encompass
The above two scenarios expose nursing facilities to two kinds of revenue leakage: one is via rejected claims; another is through underpayment of services.
Additionally, it’s often difficult to establish that the patient required the services provided by a nursing facility and excessive time spent on non-medical activities.
Outsourcing Skilled Nurse Facility Billing to MBC
MBC has helped nursing centers both in rural and urban US (more in rural as that’s where nursing facilities are mostly concentrated) across all 50 US states, to improve their revenues by reducing reimbursement rejection rates and increasing their focus on nursing services. MBC’s billers and coders come with extensive knowledge of billing and coding intricacies so that they can take care of the entire cycle of billing and coding needs starting from identifying patient eligibility for reimbursement to accurately separating items covered by Medicare A and Medicare B. They also perform post-claim-submission follow-ups to ensure timely reimbursement of payments by CMS.
Our flexible service models ensure that you can choose a solution that fits your needs and setup. We offer varied service models including in-house service model; where providers can source in-house skilled nursing facility billers and coders through the MBC job portal.
If you don’t have an inbuilt team of billers and coders nor any need to have one, our outsourced billing and coding model will suit you helping you to ship out all your billing and coding responsibilities to us, so that you can solely concentrate on the delivery of nursing care. Our outsourcing model includes the entire range of billing and coding activities starting from identifying insurance eligibility of the patient to submission of claims and post-submission follow-ups.
Our RCM consulting model involves a thorough study of your revenue management cycle to spot areas of revenue leakage and plug them by helping reduce outdated or cumbersome processes, and assist in replacing inept software applications with new ones customized to your need and environment along with help in training people where required.
MBC national network also comes with local knowledge and familiarity so that we understand your operating environment and help you meet your state-and-location specific needs.
