Reducing Payment Denials

What advice would I give for ways to reduce payment denials? Start simply – but right away – by implementing a simple system such as the following:

Flag all denied charges, making a copy of the related EOBs and placing them in a folder.

Hold staff meetings of the billing and collection personnel twice a month if possible or, at a minimum, once a month. In the meetings review and discuss the denials; why they occurred, and what corrective action needs to be taken to prevent them in the future.

Implement the corrective action by communicating with the individuals who are involved with the process. In most cases this will be the people in attendance at these meetings – but not always. It could also include anyone from front desk personnel to even the physicians. For example, a denial pattern might be identified as stemming from the fact that a particular physician is filling out the patient charge ticket incorrectly.