Medical billing and claim processing is a periodic process that strengthens the financial health of your medical practice. However, it is statistically proven that an average chiropractor loses 15-20% of annual revenue in terms of pending accounts receivables and bad debts. Chiropractic medical billing and settling accounts receivables is a challenge that most chiropractors struggle against every claim cycle. There are multiple reasons for a problematic accounts receivable status of your chiropractic clinic and the only way to address it is to identify problem areas and fix them over both short and long term.
The best way to maintain a healthy accounts receivable ratio, it is important to streamline your claim cycle and make it more efficient at identifying defaulters. Following steps can improve your claim cycle significantly and improve your claim settlement ratio –
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Increase the frequency of claim filing – Most chiropractic clinics have a claim cycle of 1-6 months which means that accounts receivables get to age in your system for a long time. This reduces the chance of pay-out by individual customers as well as insurance carriers. Therefore, it is advisable to increase the frequency of your claim filing process to weekly or fortnightly and make your claim cycle more financially productive.
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Maintain records of claim filing and follow-up – The efficiency of your claim cycle and settlement of accounts receivables is directly proportional to the quality of patient records and medical data maintained by you. Thus, every stage of claim process must be recorded with care for further follow-up and future reference. No accounts receivable should convert into bad debts on the account of insufficient documentation or no follow-up on the claim process by your medical practice.
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Improve turn-around-time to 48 hours for claim queries – In addition to maintaining patient records, improving the turnaround time for pending claim queries and requirements can dramatically enhance your claim cycle. Claim denials can be avoided and claim settlement can be expedited simply by resolving documentation, compliance and coding related queries of insurance carriers within 48 hours of communication from the insurer.
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Analyse and optimize your payers mix – Finally, adopting revenue cycle management to improve your claim cycle can dramatically reduce your accounts receivables. Revenue cycle management or RCM analyses the mix of patients serviced by your practice who are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, those who are covered by private insurers and those who are individual payers. In chiropractic, most patients are individual payers and are most likely to default on payments. In order to optimize your payers mix, you can allot more service time to patients who are insured and for whom subsequent claim filing can be easily conducted in a standardized manner.
Medicalbillersandcoders.com is a billing service provider that offers tailor made coding, billing, claim filing and collection solutions for your specialty service. Especially for reducing accounts receivables of your Chiropractic practice, you can partner with medicalbillersandcoders.com to monitor a more efficient & improved claim cycle.
Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Feb-19-2014
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