Best Practices for Combatting Chiropractic Account Receivable Issues
The financial well-being of any medical clinic depends on billing and claim processing. Unfortunately, chiropractic offices have an especially difficult time settling accounts receivable.
Statistics show that chiropractors lose up to 20 percent of their yearly revenue due to bad debts and pending account receivables. While some chiropractors believe this is just the nature of their business and have resigned themselves to these losses, there are ways to combat these issues.
Chiropractors perform vital health care services and should be compensated fairly for these services. Implementing the following practices will ensure that this happens.
- Clean up claims. While getting claims out fast is important, making sure they are clean is even more important. If you have to resubmit a claim any effort to get it out quickly will have been wasted.
- Focus of verification. The verification process should begin as soon as an appointment is made. Make sure insurance information and eligibility are always high priorities.
- Examine every denied claim. By keeping track of why claims are denied you can begin to see patterns. This will allow you to make any changes to future claims which will decrease their likelihood of being denied.
- Check code accuracy. Routinely scrub codes before a claim is submitted.
- File claims more often. The longer an account receivable is in your system, the less likely it is that it will be paid. Therefore, the more frequently you file claims, the more likely it is that these claims will be paid.
- Keep good records. Every time a claim is touched, make sure to document what occurred and what needs to happen next. If clear and complete notes are not taken, each time the claim comes up for review you will have to begin the process over again which wastes precious time and resources.
- Expedite claim inquiries. If an insurance company requests additional documentation relating to things like coding or compliance issues, make sure these questions are answered in a timely manner. Again, the longer it takes to answer these questions, the longer it takes to get paid.
- Know when enough is enough. Last, but certainly not least, if your chiropractic office is overwhelmed with billing issues, know when it is time to outsource these tasks. No matter what reason you have for keeping your billing in-house, if you aren’t getting paid, it’s time to make a change.
Need billing services or consulting? Call or text Billing Buddies at 612-432-2366. Or, email Bonnie J. Flom at bonnie@billingbuddies.com. We have 24 years of medical billing experience.
