How to Make Billing and Payments Efficient in your Gastroenterology Practice

Gastroenterology is a focused and specialized area of medical care that has been gaining prominence over the past few years. With unprecedented population growth and dramatic changes in lifestyle, Gastroenterology has seen a steady rise in patient inflow. In addition to that, groundbreaking advancements in medical equipments and techniques have broadened the scope of gastroenterology. Therefore, a gastroenterology practice can’t afford to keep its billing practices in chaos anymore. With changes in care practices, billing practices are also required to advance and become more productive. Some easy-to-adopt changes in coding and billing practices can overhaul the financial health of any Gastroenterology practice.

• Establishing RCM – Revenue cycle management is a practice of systematically streamlining the inflow and outflow of cash as well as assets for a medical practice. It entails daily, weekly and monthly medical reports; adherence to HIPPA norms for medical billing and adopting ICD coding changes at regular intervals. In addition to that, RCM caters to claim filing, claim follow-ups and monitoring reimbursement rates as well as claim denial rates. As the number of patients seeking specialized care for gastric disorders is increasing, the need for a more standardized revenue management system is also increasing.

• Adopting EMR – EMR/EHR adoption and application of the same meaningfully in your Gastroenterology practice will not only save your clinic from official penalties but would also make you eligible for EMR stimulus. Government is rewarding practices that have moved into digitalization of medical data recording and billing practices and a cash influx like this can prove quite beneficial for your practice. You can also avoid decline in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates by automating coding and billing processes.

• Training staff – With the expansion in scope and nature of care being offered by your practice, it is important that your in-house staff is well equipped to work in a fee-for-service model. This would entail staff orientation towards patient care and satisfaction. Majority of customer complaints in Gastroenterology arise from repeated ailments and maintaining patient history as well as training the staff to handle disgruntled patients can make your billing and payment processes much more streamlined.

• Managing receivables – RCM caters to the complete inflow and outflow of cash from your practice, however, special attention is required for accounts receivables. Many a gastroenterology practitioners leave their hard earned money on the table because of insufficient follow-up or lack of documentation. On an average 30% of the outstanding claims get converted in to accounts receivable or bad debt with time, effectively reducing the profitability of a medical practice. Monitoring receivables at a regular basis, improving turnaround time for document requirements can shape the financial health of your practice and improve payment rates.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com is a billing service provider that can customize coding and billing practices for your gastroenterology practice. With medical billing experts who understand gastroenterology terminologies as well as stay abreast with coding changes in the field, medicalbillersandcoders.com can offer much more than just technical support to your billing function.

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Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Oct-22-2013 Back