Top 5 Factors to Reduce AR Days

AR management is a critical component to ensure stable financial health of a medical practice. An increase in AR days is a clear indication that the patient payments such as co-pays are not being collected upfront. Every practice needs to improve their AR performance because the patient influx in 2014 will bring in more patients with high deductible health plans.

Industry Facts :

Medical practices fail to collect approximately 10-15% of their revenue

According to the MGMA, around $25-$30 is spent on managing an average denial

ICD-10 implementation in 2015 will increase claim denial rates significantly

According to the AMA, resubmitted, denied, rejected, underpaid claims can cost a healthcare practice as much as $100,000 every month

How can Practices Bring Down AR Days?

1. Practices need to explain the cost of visit, co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance to the patients before starting the treatment. The financial policy should be clearly communicated so that they are aware of how much they owe and why
2. The front-desk staff should get in touch with the insurance company to confirm a patient’s enrollment, coverage levels and the amount to be collected before starting the treatment. Failure to verify the insurance coverage can lead to denied claims later and outstanding balances
3. Demographic information of the patient should be verified. The front office staff needs to ensure that the information is complete and entered accurately into the billing system
4. Providers are required to enhance their documentation skills because it is vital for accurate coding and charge entry. They need to document the patient’s history, diagnoses, physical findings, prescriptions, instructions, treatment rendered, and other important information. This will speed up the process of charge entry into the billing system, ensuring timely claims submission and reimbursement
5. Generation and submission of medical claims needs to be done in an accurate manner. If a claim is rejected by a third party payer, correction and resubmission adds two to three weeks to the AR cycle

Practices can set a goal of collecting 100 percent of all co-pays at the time of care provision. Co-pay collection can be improved if the physician keeps a tab on the daily report generated by the administration staff for any outlier. It is important to know the reason why co-pays are not collected. They need to monitor their billing department functions to find out how often medical bills are sent out. Pending insurance accounts should be handled aggressively so that there are no AR aging reports.

MBC Helping Practices get Timely Payment:

AR management is a daunting task and practices can ensure maximum payment only if the AR doesn’t age beyond 90 days. Considering the increased workload, many practices prefer outsourcing it to a third party like MedicalBillersandCoders.com.

MBC has a team of experienced coders and billers who are well-trained in handling AR and denial management issues. They offer effective services to practices across all the states in the US. Latest technology is used to help practices sail through AR challenges such as claims denials, coding errors and documentation issues.

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Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Jul-23-2014 Back