What's the best-kept secret to improved medical billing?

CHICAGO, March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With the many pressures facing today's health care practitioners, running an efficient and profitable physician practice or medical group business is tough. Take, for example, the myriad issues around medical billing. McGladrey's What's the best-kept secret to improved medical billing? explains how billing and coding missteps can cost a practice millions of dollars each year if errors go unchecked. What's more astonishing is that these errors are, in many cases, relatively avoidable.

According to the American Medical Billing Association, in a recent survey, nearly half of all claims were unsettled due to common mistakes like submission of duplicate claims, lack of complete information or other information needed to justify the claim, or invalid codes. In addition, the survey results indicated 24 percent of unsettled claims were due to other routine questions around coverage issues, including no coverage based on date of service, non-covered or non-network benefit or service, coordination of benefits, or coverage determination.

How can these inaccuracies be avoided, and what's the best line of defense for these missteps? It's pretty simple and probably sitting right in front of you each and every day – your receptionist.

A practice's receptionist is not only the front face of the office. They're also, in many instances, the launch of a practice's revenue cycle. They're the person getting the patient name, insurance provider information and sometimes, they are also the person processing the claim, assuring codes and modifiers are accurate, and checking and re-checking before submission. If proper training, resources and ongoing support are not provided to a receptionist, a spiral of mistakes can accumulate, and soon the problem becomes an epidemic. Many times, these denied claims fall into billing limbo, and eventually get written off, sometimes without the practice's physicians ever knowing the final outcome of payment.

Improve your medical billing processes and learn more tips by visiting McGladrey's What's the best-kept secret to improved medical billing? article.

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