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Showing posts with the label account receivables

What Clean Claim Rate Should a Dermatology Billing Partner Actually Guarantee You?

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Choosing a dermatology billing partner based only on a promised clean claim rate can be misleading. A billing company may tell you that it maintains a 95%, 97%, or even 99% clean claim rate. But before accepting that number, you need to know how the rate is measured, what claims are included, and whether those clean claims are actually being paid correctly . For dermatology practices, this matters because a claim can pass an initial billing check and still face problems related to medical necessity, modifiers, procedure coding, payer policies, or underpayment. A clean claim rate should therefore be viewed as one part of the revenue cycle, not the entire performance picture. What Clean Claim Rate Should a Dermatology Billing Partner Guarantee? A reasonable contract target is 97% or higher , provided the billing partner clearly defines the metric and measures it consistently at the payer level. The percentage itself, however, is only part of the agreement. A dermatology practice should a...

How to Reduce Days in A/R with Smart Denial Management Strategies

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 Timely reimbursement is the lifeblood of a financially healthy medical practice. Yet, increasing Days in Accounts Receivable (A/R) continues to be one of the most pressing revenue cycle issues for healthcare providers. One of the major culprits behind this issue? Denials. In this blog, we explore how strategic denial management not only reduces days in A/R but also improves cash flow and strengthens your bottom line. Understanding Days in A/R Days in A/R refers to the average number of days it takes for a practice to collect payments due after services have been provided. Industry benchmarks typically suggest keeping A/R days under 35. Anything higher signals inefficiencies - and likely unresolved denials. How Claim Denials Affect A/R Denied claims delay payments and increase administrative burden. Without an effective process to identify, appeal, and correct them, your A/R days will climb - and revenue will suffer. Top causes of denials include: Missing or incorrect ...

Solving the Puzzle of Legacy Accounts Receivable

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  Managing legacy accounts receivable can be a challenge for hospitals. These outstanding balances can be difficult to collect and may have been on the books for years. They can negatively impact a hospital’s cash flow, financial performance, and overall stability. However, with effective management strategies and best practices, hospitals can tackle the puzzle of legacy accounts receivable and boost their revenue. The Hidden Costs of Unpaid Medical Bills Image Source The financial burden of unpaid medical bills is a significant issue for hospitals. When patients do not pay their outstanding balances, hospitals are left with uncompensated care costs that can impact their bottom line. Uncompensated care costs include both bad debt, which is when a hospital cannot collect payment from a patient or insurance company, and charity care, which is when a hospital provides care for free or at a reduced cost to patients who are unable to pay. In addition to the direct financial impact...

3 Unknown Myths about AR Pile-Up

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  Account Receivable (AR)  is one step that divides the reimbursement and claims; the older the claim gets the harder it becomes for claims to get reimbursed. For practice when AR slips below a certain level you either have a pretty large backlog to be sorted out, or you can see that it becomes impossible to tackle the day’s run-out without any futile results.   The major challenge is that in recent years the financial responsibility and medical care for patients have compounded but on the other hand, we see that the widespread reach of more and more products through new healthcare insurance exchanges has prompted higher deductibles or coinsurance for physicians. As physicians cope with unfamiliar issues with different insurance companies, the AR suffers dearly. Here are three factors you can look into to solve your AR pile-up mess. 3 Unknown Myths about AR Pile-Up Step up the insurance verification process The starting point of addressing AR issues is the f...

Importance of A/R Follow-up in Medical Billing

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  Importance of A/R Follow-up Medical billing is a complicated process that requires special skills in medical billing, coding, denial, and AR management from experienced and well-trained staff. The financial health and success of any medical practice are dependent on maintaining positive cash flow. In order to provide patient care and cover expenses, it’s important that payments are not delayed, lost, or denied. With the understanding of billing guidelines and a highly trained staff in place, you’ll start to reap the benefits of high first-pass acceptance rates and shorter billing cycles. But even when everything goes right, some claims will still be rejected or denied. The accounts receivable (A/R) follow-up team in a healthcare organization is responsible for looking after such denied claims and reopening them to receive rightful reimbursement from the insurance carriers. Even though these claims could be held up by simple mistakes, you will be surprised to know that over hal...