It can be overwhelming for healthcare providers to get paid less than they expect. The major reason for losing compensation for the medical care services provided to the patients is the inefficiencies in the podiatry billing services.
From patients’ scheduling, medical coding, submitting insurance claims, and tracking down payments. Even small negligence or error in any one of these tasks can lead to claim denials. As a result, healthcare providers can face revenue loss in terms of denied, delayed, or underpayments.
Therefore, healthcare providers should never take their revenue cycle management for granted. Because a high patient volume is not beneficial until you get completely reimbursed for the healthcare services rendered.
Moreover, consistent cash flow is not only crucial for leading your business out of the crisis. But it is also important to sustain your existence and stay ahead of the competitors.
Here’s a question that arises: how can healthcare providers get maximum revenue? The answer is very simple. They should give proper attention to managing podiatry billing services as they give to patients.
As a healthcare provider, if you are losing your hard-earned revenue due to the high rate of claim denials. Then it is a clear indication that your billing system isn’t efficient enough for generating maximum revenue.
So, in order to avoid further financial loss, healthcare providers should analyze the entire revenue collections management to identify the causes for revenue leakage. Once you get to know the areas of improvement, you can implement smart podiatry billing solutions to unleash the profitability that was locked in an inefficient billing system.
Are you worried due to the constant revenue leakage? & don’t know what to do to fix the issues? Then you must read the article carefully. Here are the following tips that can help you to avoid common billing errors.
Collect Patients’ Information Carefully
It has been observed that failure to capture accurate and complete patients’ information slows down the podiatry billing services and result in claim denials.
In order to remove the root causes of revenue loss from the beginning, it is the responsibility of the registration staff to verify everything about your patient’s information. Such as their policy numbers, date of birth, name, gender, and other basic information.
This information must be kept current to avoid any inconvenience in terms of claim denials. In addition to this, medical practitioners should hire highly trained staff for the execution of front-end tasks efficiently.
However, it has been observed that, despite the advancements in technology, the majority of healthcare providers still rely on manual methods for keeping patient records, data collection, and sharing with the back-end staff. Using such orthodox techniques increases the chances of human errors and can lead to claim denials.
The best solution to improve the efficiency of clinical documentation is the implementation of advanced Electronic Health Records. Using EHRs solutions is the best way to keep the patient’s record in a digital form. It can benefit your podiatry practice in the following ways:
- Provides accurate, up-to-date, and complete information about patients.
- Enable healthcare providers to access the patient records quickly for more coordinated, efficient care.
- Improves the efficiency and accuracy of medical documentation, which ultimately results in inaccurate medical coding and claims preparation.
- Helps to bridge the communication gaps between patients and healthcare providers.
- Protect the highly confidential information from loss, unauthorized access etc.
- Implementation of EHR can result in fewer denials and timely reimbursements.
Use the Right Billing Codes
Accurate medical codes play a crucial role in streamlining podiatry billing services. Insurance companies get information about a particular injury, diagnoses, illness, treatments, medical procedures, and services a patient received during his visit.
Coding errors i.e. unbundling, upcoding, under coding, incorrect modifiers or other coding errors hold payers back from payments for a long time period. And sometimes healthcare providers can lose reimbursement permanently.
In some cases, medical practitioners can also face lawsuits like: federal penalties, heavy fines, cancellation of licenses, and imprisonments. Because some coding errors are considered malpractice/billing frauds.
Therefore, healthcare practitioners should never rely on inexperienced medical coders. They must acquire the services of the certified coders, having in-depth knowledge about the latest coding classifications i.e. ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS.
Moreover, make sure that your billing and coding staff stay aware of newly updated codes. So they can use precise diagnostic and procedural codes for maximum reimbursements.
Timely Delivery of Claims
The optimization of the podiatry billing services is highly dependent on the timely submission of clean medical claims. Insurance companies strictly follow the deadlines and given time windows for the claims submission.
Healthcare providers, who fail to submit the medical claims before expiring the filing limits, have to wait for a long time period for reimbursement. Because usually, payers reject the claims that are being filed after the due dates.
Therefore, medical practitioners should closely monitor the performance of their billing staff to make sure that they are working diligently to submit error-free medical claims in a timely manner.
Furthermore, it is also the responsibility of the medical billers to stay connected with the insurance companies after filing the claims. Because it is necessary to stay updated with the current status of the submitted claims, either paid or unpaid. If a claim gets denied, then they should immediately take action to rectify the errors and use the right of appeal to capture the uncollected revenue.
Hire a Reliable Podiatry Billing Company
Streamlining the podiatry billing service is not a cup of tea for the healthcare providers while providing quality care to the patients. Because the latest reforms in the fields of medical coding, billing, and strict policies established by the insurance agencies and regulatory bodies have increased the complexities of the podiatry billing services.
So, without the help of a dedicated billing team, they cannot keep their revenue cycle management on the right track. So, instead of spending time and money on the hiring of professional billers, coders, office workspace, purchase of innovative billing tools, healthcare providers should outsource their podiatry medical billing services to a trusted third party.
In this way, they can achieve their revenue goals without excessive financial as well as administrative burdens. Moreover, outsourced podiatry billing specialists can benefit your practice in the following ways:
- Get rid of dealing with each payer’s specific payment policies.
- Access to trained industry specialists.
- Reduced billing errors.
- Faster claims processing.
- Consistent cash flow.
- Enables you to focus on the core aspects of your business.
Medcare MSO is a 100% HIPAA compliant and multi-specialty medical billing company in the United States. Which provides custom-tailored podiatry billing services to meet your financial needs. Pay a visit to our website and let our expert team assist you in elevating your profitability and managing financial resources.