It’s complicated. Follow up on medical claims from one payer in 30 days but wait to track payment from another for two months? What about that third payer that usually takes 90 days or more?
Trying to make sense of all these different payment schedules can be challenging. Beyond time-consuming, this complexity can cause well-meaning medical practices to lose well-deserved revenue. In fact, medical practices leave up to 30% of their reimbursement behind because they lack proper processes, training or technology, the Medical Group Management Association estimates.
Find an effective strategy in this second installment of our Maximizing Your A/R series (we covered getting more revenue with automated billing rules last time).
Claim Pending, Lost or Ignored?
Because each payer processes medical claims on its own terms, two 30-day-old receivables from two different payers might require completely different actions.
For example, Medicare might pay claims in 14 days but a regional payer takes 40 days or more. If your practice follows up on all unpaid claims after 30 days, the action is way too late for the Medicare claim and too early for the regional payer claim.
Software as a Solution
Your best bet is to act according to each payer’s schedule. Software that automatically tracks the daily aging of claims makes this easier.
Automating these tasks can also cut A/R staff frustration from trying to manually track late payments.
When a medical claim is late, modern software can automatically:
* Create a ‘collection incident’
* Generate a letter
* Resubmit the claim
Upgrading to this kind of medical software is just one of the effective tactics inside “6 Key Strategies for Medical A/R Management.”
