Category: Health News
Created: 9/22/2008 2:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 9/22/2008
3. The third top reason for doctors losing money is due to sloppy bookkeeping. Yet another reason to make sure you have not only experienced but loyal people in charge of your billing. It is amazing how much money doctors lose due to the negligence and inexperience of the people that they put in charge of their money.
Another example of sloppy bookkeeping is incorrect patient information on file. If you dont have the correct personal information or insurance information, the patients claim can be denied. In many offices denials are not handled so if the claim isnt paid the first time around, the doctor loses out.
5. The fifth reason for doctors losing money is employee theft. Doctors never want to believe that someone on their staff would ever steal from them, but unfortunately it happens in the majority of doctors offices. It is great if you feel that you can trust everyone in your office, but it is even better if you have systems in place that make theft nearly impossible in the first place. Make everyone accountable for any money that passes thru their hands.
Are you one of those doctors who thinks that if you want more money you need to see more patients? The reality is that you just need to get paid for ALL of the patients that you are already seeing.
Bottom line, patients with balances need to be billed regularly. If they do not respond to the bills, appropriate action needs to be taken.
So, if you are a doctor who thinks you need to be seeing more patients, you may want to consider if any of these top six reasons doctors lose money listed above may apply to your office. You may be able to raise your bottom line considerably on the patients you are already seeing.
If it is a true contract exclusion then the patient should be notified prior to the services being performed so that they can arrange for payment. The biller should know before the services are submitted that the insurance company does not cover them.
4. The fourth reason is due to lack of proper follow up. The sad truth is most doctors offices do very little, if any, follow up. All unpaid claims should be followed up on at least every 30 days. Just submitting the claims to the insurance companies is not enough. For whatever reason, a certain percentage of claims will go unpaid unless they are followed up on. Many times claims are denied for improper reasons and a phone call needs to be made to get the issue resolved. If these calls are not made, the doctor does not get paid for their service. Proper and thorough follow up is a necessity.
1. According to a local insurance company, the number one way that doctors lose money is by not collecting copays, co-insurance, and/or deductibles. These are the amounts that are due directly from the patients.
Doctor Stop Losing Money - 6 Ways To Stop The Bleeding
2. The number two way in which doctors lose money is due to non-covered services. The services may be non-covered because they are a contract exclusion, or they may be non-covered due to the way that they were billed. In any case, if the insurance doesnt pay, many times the doctor ends up writing off the charges.
Many doctors make the mistake of only watching what comes in and not what is going out. They look at the bottom line, and if the bottom line is not high enough, then they figure they need to see more patients. What they really need to look at is how much of what is going out is coming back in. It isnt possible to collect 100% of what you bill out, but you should be collecting 95% or better. (Im not talking about contractual adjustments. Im talking about the amounts that you are legally entitled to collect.)
A doctor also wants to make sure that the coder understands which diagnoses apply to which procedures were performed. Many insurance companies only cover certain procedures when certain diagnosis codes are linked to them.
One way to cut down on denials for non-covered services is to make sure that you have experienced people in charge of your billing. If you have an experienced biller it will cut down on incorrect denials due to billing errors.
First of all, copays SHOULD BE collected at the time of service. If a patient cannot pay the copay at the time of service, (or they forget their checkbook, etc.) then your staff should give them a pre-addressed envelope when they leave so that they can mail it in when they get home.
If you dont receive the copay within 10 days, the patient should be billed.
If you do not have a good system in place for billing your patients, then you are probably losing more money than you realize.
6. The sixth top reason for doctors losing money is due to under-coding, and/or coding errors. It is important to have someone who understands all of the ins and outs of coding. Doctors have to be careful when submitting claims to insurance companies that they code everything accurately. It would not be good to submit claims with codes that do not reflect the services actually performed to the patient. But sometimes coders can be so concerned about over coding, that they actually tend to under code EVERYTHING. This can result in a huge dollar loss for the doctor.
Co-insurance and deductibles usually cannot be billed until the EOB is received from the insurance company since the amount varies. As soon as the EOB is received a bill should be sent out to the patient with an explanation as to what the bill is for.
There are many ways that sloppy bookkeeping can cause money loss. One is from claims just not being submitted. The doctor does the work of seeing the patient, but never gets paid because his staff doesnt submit the claim. Many doctors think that this cant happen to them but in reality they just would never know if it did.
acute sinusitis Infection
acute sinusitis
Blood Pressure Headache May Be Sinus
acute sinusitis Infection
acute sinusitis
