In billing when 90% of things are going great, a billers’ job is to go after and find the mistakes, errors, lack of proper payment, and fix the 10% of the things that are going wrong. That is still a lot of money that needs to be sought after.

Collect Money Between 0 – 90 Days
If you let these errors continue to pile up, the A/R gets older and has a snowball effect over 90 days. After 90 days, if you ever collect the money it is very devalued.

You must collect your money within the honeymoon period (from 0 – 90 days). This means the biller has to fight the good fight within this timeframe. The doctor must support these efforts in all ways possible.

After 90 days – Specialized Collection Agency
Your office has been polite, professional, but you have provided a service to the patient. If they cannot pay their account for financial hardship reasons – they just need to let you know, you fill out a form, and adjust it off.

Unfortunately, some will ignore your bills and instead will pay for the “nice-to-have” but “non-necessities” such as the cell phone bill, cable bill, or the vacation they just came back from. This IS the appropriate situation to let professional collectors handle it. Patients (and patients they refer) who don’t pay their bills are not always the type of patients you need in your practice.

I know a lot of doctors prefer not to use a collection agency, but they have their place in billing. These agencies have more people to make the phone calls and send the letters.

Collect Proper Data
We can’t just sit back and say well the money is coming in for the most part without me appealing, or calling the insurances, or checking for deductibles, so I will just keep entering data and sending claims like I always have. This starts the cycle of the doctor needing to see more and more patients to try to make the same income. Most staff doesn’t understand this.

Help the office staff understand that it is very important that they make an effort to change some of the data entry issues and collect the proper data the first time. Put together a bonus plan that will work for your office staff. You will have a happier office in the long run.

About EYE Bill FOR YOU

Based in Virginia with 54 years of combined experience and a broad range of medical billing knowledge, EYE Bill For You offers HIPAA compliant medical billing for many specialties. Our medical billing outsourcing solution is offered in the Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland areas.

Cathy Boddie (owner) has an established reputation for helping doctors lower their accounts receivables by examining super-bills and improving them to increase reimbursement levels. Cathy has taught students in medical billing and coding at Northern Virginia Community. Cathy has provided lectures and training sessions on medical billing and coding, Self Pay Issues, and working with Embassies accounts at Georgetown University Hospital and Medical Center.

http://www.eyebillforyou.com

EYE BILL FOR YOU
Cathy Boddie, Owner
email: cathy@eyebillforyou.com
phone: 877-EYE-BILL or 877-393-2455

For permission to republish the above article, please contact Cathy Boddie.