{"id":9458,"date":"2013-10-07T18:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T22:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweryourpractice.com\/?p=9458"},"modified":"2013-10-07T18:00:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T22:00:43","slug":"4-ways-improve-payer-provider-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/4-ways-improve-payer-provider-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Improve Payer-Provider Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carecloud.com\/continuum\/using-ehr-strengthen-physician-patient-relationship\/\">physician-patient relationship<\/a> receives a fair amount of attention, particularly with Meaningful Use Stage 2 and its patient engagement requirements fast approaching.<\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>payer-provider relations can be just as important to your practice\u2019s viability<\/strong>. Forming fruitful relationships with the companies that reimburse your claims can be the difference between getting paid or not.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->So today, we\u2019ll reveal four methods for improving the relationship between your payers and your practice.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Establish Clear, Transparent Contract Rules<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Payer contracts are at the heart of payer-provider relations. They are the rules around which the relationship develops.<\/p>\n<p>Before signing on the dotted line, make sure the contract terms are well defined, transparent and agreed upon by both parties. This reduces the possibility of future disputes, as either party can simply point to the contract when disagreements arise.<\/p>\n<p>Also, <strong>keep an eye out for \u00a0\u201cevergreen\u201d clauses<\/strong>. Payers sometimes sneak these in so contracts automatically renew upon expiration unless the practice notifies the payer otherwise. Don\u2019t get locked into contract terms that will end up causing grief later.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Reduce the Administrative Burden<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carecloud.com\/continuum\/practice-management\/\">Practice management software<\/a> does more than save your practice money. It lessens the administrative burden for both you and the payers you work with. Features like <strong>contract rules checking and code scrubbing help you submit clean claims<\/strong>, which keep you from irritating payers by constantly submitting incorrect claims.<\/p>\n<p>Many payers also make provider portals available so practices can check on the status of their claims and perform other essentials online. The fewer unnecessary phone calls you make to a payer, the more likely they\u2019ll be responsive when you actually need them.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Courteous Phone Demeanor<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Speaking of phone calls, your staff should always conduct payer phone calls in the friendliest manner possible, no matter how frustrating the situation. Remember, even with the largest payers, there\u2019s still a person on the other end of the line.<\/p>\n<p>Often times, your practice will end up dealing with the same individuals when calling state-based payers. If these people have a good rapport with your practice, they\u2019re more likely to help you when needed. But if they have a reason to dislike your practice, they\u2019ll probably do the bare minimum when it comes to providing assistance.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Outsource<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Outsourcing your medical billing doesn\u2019t improve payer-provider relations per se, but rather eliminates relations altogether \u2013 which can be a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of having to put effort into the relationship, the task is left in the hands of your billing agency. <strong>If there are any conflicts, the agency handles these<\/strong> instead of the issue tying up your staff\u2019s valuable time. To top it off, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carecloud.com\/continuum\/outsourcing-your-medical-billing-reason\/\">outsourced medical billing<\/a> has been shown as a more cost-effective option than keeping billing in-house.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you are running a concierge-style practice, you likely depend on payer reimbursements to keep your practice running. With this in mind, it\u2019s vital to cultivate a strong payer-provider relationship to ensure your practice has every possible financial advantage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The physician-patient relationship receives a fair amount of attention, particularly with Meaningful Use Stage 2 and its patient engagement requirements fast approaching. However, payer-provider relations can be just as important to your practice\u2019s viability. Forming fruitful relationships with the companies that reimburse your claims can be the difference between getting paid or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>4 Ways to Improve Payer-Provider Relations - Continuum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Payer-provider relations can be important to your practice\u2019s viability. Here are four methods for improving the relationship between your payers and practice.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/4-ways-improve-payer-provider-relations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Ways to Improve Payer-Provider Relations - Continuum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Payer-provider relations can be important to your practice\u2019s viability. 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