Strengthen the collection process

If your practice is typical, third party reimbursement for physician services comprises the mains source of revenue. Therefore, work to manage the complexities of your overall reimbursement by establishing defined billing procedures, analyzing patterns in actual reimbursement, and monitoring staff performance. How you approach each of these challenges is important to maintaining strong (and steadily improving) collections, so let's consider each.

Establish procedures. If everyone does his or her assigned part and supports each other, you'll improve collections and financial performance, reduce billing errors, streamline administration, elevate staff satisfaction, and improve patient relations.

Analyze patterns. With good procedures, you can analyze financial results. When payments arrive, your staff must properly check the claims as filed, examine denied charges, and identify what may or may not be legitimate.

Monitor performance. The third component starts with an awareness of progress or lack of progress. Ongoing monitoring of billing operations detects if the billing department quality has slipped.