Perks of Reviewing A/R On a Regular Basis

It is very important for medical practices to assess the efficiency of their revenue cycle management practices on a regular basis. Perks of Reviewing of A/R is required for the bigger picture assessment of the practices’ financial health. According to the industry experts, this evaluation needs to be done almost every month or every 3 or 6 months. The more frequently the review is done, the better it is for the practice.

According to the  CMS (Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services), only 70% claims get paid the first time they are submitted. Approximately 30% claims are either denied, lost or ignored. That’s a lot of money left on the table. By minimizing accounts’ days in A/R, medical practices can improve their bottom line because they will be collecting everything they have earned.

Here are some of the perks of reviewing A/R on a regular basis for your practice:

It will help in ensuring the financial stability of your practice that is dependent on maintaining a positive cash flow. To cover expenses, there is a need to maintain steady flow of revenue and the A/R team will help in ensuring the same.

Timely reviewing will help in recovering payments that are overdue and also minimize time for outstanding accounts. With regular perks of A/R reviewing, claims will never go missing. When claims are not received, payments get delayed. But if claims have been followed-up and you know that the claims haven’t been received, then it will be easier to send another request.

Perks of Having an A/R Team:

Practices need to have an A/R team for looking after denied claims. This team will be responsible for reopening the denied claims to help practices receive maximum reimbursement from insurance companies.

Ideally, there are two departments in an A/R team:

• A/R analytics
• A/R follow-up.

There are mainly three stages in medical billing A/R follow-up procedure- initial evaluation, analysis and prioritizing and collection. Under initial evaluation, claims listed on the A/R aging report are identified and analyzed. The claims are then prioritized and third stage involves collection.

Another way of reclaiming the missing funds is to simplify and automate the process of revenue cycle management. With the help of new technologies such as, patient portals, EHR and practice management systems, practices become enabled to cut operating costs and deliver quality care.