Business Office Spring Cleaning
Spring has sprung! It’s time to straighten up your business office and a good place to begin your spring-cleaning is with your accounts receivable.
We’re talking to a lot of providers and there seems to be a tremendous backlog of accounts in many hospital and physician billing systems.
One MSO told us that the physician billing system they inherited has tons of really old, old accounts.
A DME group told us it’s all they can do just to process their daily new business. There’s no way they can handle the patient pay portion that continues to grow like a virus. Cash flow is critical in many facilities.
Think about how to start to attack that account mess. When cleaning up a backlog of receivables there are several ways to prioritize them:
- Age should be your first concern. Insurance receivables will become null and void if not followed up on in a timely manner. Carriers may claim that the initial billing was not received. Your re-submission may happen after the timely filing window has lapsed. Claim rejected!!!! Select accounts that fit this profile for immediate work.
- Large balances go to the top of the list. Working these accounts first can bring in the most money the fastest.
- Create a temporary satellite follow-up team. This team would be dedicated (with blinders on) to certain portions of the backlog. The team would be disbanded when the work was complete. A strong leader from your staff and a couple of temporaries might be your source for this plan.
- Outsourcing is politically correct. There is not stigma attached to asking for help.
We’ve helped providers with backlogs for over 51 years. There are two ways we can help you:
- We can assess your situation and come up with realistic ideas to attack the problem.
- We can take some of that backlog off your hands and work it using professional who are highly skilled in working with patients and insurance carriers.
Back to the Receivables Talk Index