How to Reduce Mental Health Providers Billing Backlogs?        

Practitioners, some times, medical fail to run their business effectively despite providing quality health care services. They see rushing hours at the medical center every day but fail to run the medical practice. The reason could be billing backlogs. Many medical practitioners focus on offering quality health care services. Still, they fail to focus on the revenue cycle, which is the most ignored yet strong reason for the medical practice’s failure.

1) Submit claims on a regular basis

Most of the mental health bailing payments in the UK happens through insurance. A medical practitioner should ensure there is a dedicated team to handle these insurance claims to have a healthy revenue cycle. Many insurance companies have due dates for an application submitted any delay in submission. Make sure the claims are submitted everyday basis to make sure you prevent early rejections.

2) Collect co-pay and co-insurance upfront

Many mental health treatments need pre-approval to initiate treatments. When they are sent for approval, a detailed summary of the amount of the claims by the insurance provider will be notified. If there is any clause such as co-payments or co-insurance. Always collect them upfront before they leave the medical facility.

3) Invoicing should be a priority

A medical practitioner is occupied with many responsibilities in a day. However, invoicing patient bills should be the priority if you aim to mental billing backlogs. If you delay invoicing patients, it will be difficult to collect the payments as it turns longer since the patient’s visit. Sending invoices should be your priority to reduce payment delays and prevent mental billing backlogs. Also, you should help the patients understand the medical bill. As per studies, nonpayment or delay in payments from patient’s end is due to their ability to understand medical bill copy.

4) Automate payment reminders

Have EHR software installed at your medical practice. These medical billing software features automate reminder features which either send emails, text messages, or voice messages to the patients reminding them about their patient dues. The automated messages you send to the patients will initiate a patient’s visit to the medical practice if they need further clarification on their medical bills or proceed to online payment gateways to clear the payment.

5) Research for aging and unpaid claims

The vital step of reducing medical billing backlogs is to research unpaid and aging unpaid claims on a regular basis and pay close attention to denials and rejections for effective follow up. Follow up the claim denials with effective notes like payer representative you speak, errors you have traced out as a reason for rejection. Have a look at the claims that are 30 days older, while few claims tend to be in the processing stage still; knowing about the payers who take a long time to process will helps you focus on the follow-ups of providers that settle claim sooner.

Conclusion

Maintaining the health of the revenue cycle is as important as providing quality health care. If you find the job of maintaining a healthy revenue cycle, you can outsource the service to mental billing service to see good results.