One of the quickest ways to bog down any task is to have actual people perform it. In accounts receivable in the healthcare industry, this means contacting various insurance companies and dealing with customer service. Keeping your people tied up in these calls for remittance is eating away at your revenue. Yes, they are necessary, but are you maximizing the efficiency of these calls?
AR Calling Basics
Your accounts receivable team is your frontline for maintaining revenue. Their organization has a direct effect on how quickly outstanding payments are recovered from insurance companies and patients alike. In the event of denied claims, accounts receivable is responsible for maximizing the insurance payout in a speedy follow-up system. Today we will look at some issues accounts receivable may have and ways to overcome them.
Accounts Receivable Problems and Solutions In Healthcare
1. Ignorance Of Process And Procedure
Maintaining a procedure and ensuring all callers are part of ongoing training is necessary. Failure to train callers appropriately can end in claim denials and payment delays, where account receivable has an incomplete understanding of problems that cause payment delays or claim denials.
Solutions
- Make sure callers undergo routine training & keep up their medical billing knowledge.
- Make sure that process ensures avoiding unwanted call duplicates.
- Make sure there is a follow-up part of the process when the payer doesn’t offer an initial claim status.
- Make sure part of the process includes an audit.
2. Insufficient Accounts Receivable Calls Documentation
It’s one thing to make sure all callers are part of a continued education program, but failure to maintain appropriate records can unnecessarily encumber callers. Records should be well organized during calls to ensure no ineffectual documentation, missed patient claims information or misdialed numbers. Failures can cause costly delays in payments and claims processing.
Solutions
- Finding a software solution to help callers capture denial code data.
- Finding a software solution to aid in automation for standardizing call notes documentation for issue resolution.
- Finding a software solution for call capture to collect or cross-check information.
- Make sure your account receivable callers follow all documentation and procedures set by your billing company protocols.
- Make sure call data is reviewed by callers regularly.
3. Absence Of Call Ethics
Calling Ethics in accounts receivable is the equivalent of bedside manner for your callers. Making sure hospitality is being exhibited by your callers every time they contact patients or health insurance staff is paramount. Failure to ensure proper candor can increase hostility and make remittance more difficult for patients and insurance providers alike.
Solutions
- Make sure callers maintain a respectful and professional demeanor at all times with the patient or insurance representative.
- Make sure callers respect both your and the customers’ time by maintaining a distraction-free calling environment.
- Make sure callers are clear, sincere & impartial when interacting with patients and insurance providers.
- Make sure the caller’s workflow volume is being audited to ensure burnout isn’t affecting customer relations.
Is Your Accounts Receivable Solution Outsourcing?
Sometimes the solution isn’t revamping your system but finding a reliable partner to do the work you don’t want to do. Look for the best in medical billing to handle you’re A/R.
