As a medical practice, you are in the business of providing health care services to patients. When you do this, your finances and other aspects of your business can be impacted by how well you manage accounts receivable. The management of accounts receivable is the process of obtaining payment from patients after they have received medical care. This can be accomplished using a variety of techniques, such as factoring, billing, or hiring collection firms.

 

To maximize your profits and minimize the risk associated with unpaid bills, it is essential that you have a plan in place for managing AR and ensuring timely payment from patients who visit your office. This blog will discuss some best practices in managing AR so you can get paid faster without damaging your relationship with patients or chasing them down after they have left the building!

Read more: Tips to improve collections and cash flow at your medical practice

 

Make smart decisions when selecting AR software

It is crucial to choose the right software for your business. You need a system that is easy to use, learn and implement. It should also have a sound support system in place and be able to integrate with existing systems.

An excellent medical accounts receivable management software will have an intuitive interface that allows users to navigate its different capabilities without difficulty easily. This can help ensure that you have better control over your data, making sure it’s accurate and up-to-date at all times, so you don’t miss out on any potential revenue opportunities.

The software should allow users access to information they need from their entire organization. Everyone can contribute to increasing efficiency regardless of where they are or what department they work in, allowing doctors to receive payment more quickly while still providing patients with quick turnaround times when necessary (e.g., if their insurance company needs more information).

 

Establish Guidelines

Establishing guidelines for when to send a letter, when to call and how often to follow up can help you to manage your accounts receivable better. Once you’ve decided which practices work best for you (and why), put them into writing and make sure that everyone who works on your accounts receivable team follows them.

One of the essential things that practice managers should do is set up clear rules about how often they should follow up with patients who owe money. Studies show that if patients don’t receive reminders at specific intervals, they will forget about paying their bills altogether—and that’s not good for anyone! This means it’s essential for doctors and office staff members to know what those intervals are so they don’t lose any revenue from missed opportunities.

Follow-up with Outstanding Accounts

You’ve already gone through many of the steps in your collections process:

• Identifying delinquent accounts
• Sending out billing statements and collection letters
• Following up with phone calls

 

If you haven’t heard back from the patient or their insurance company yet, there are still more things you can do to get paid. Here are some recommended follow-up methods for outstanding accounts:

• Send payment reminders. If a patient is still behind on their account after a few months, send them another bill along with a reminder about how much they owe and what will happen if they don’t pay within 30 days (i.e., late fees). This can help nudge them toward paying off their debt so they can move on to other patients who have had fewer problems making payments on time.
• Make personal visits or phone calls. If all else fails and your attempts at communication aren’t getting results, it might be time to make an in-person appearance at an individual’s home or office—or even call them directly.

Improve your cash flow

The importance of cash flow cannot be overstated. Cash flow refers to the movement of money in and out of business over a given period, and it’s essential for maintaining adequate liquidity. A company that doesn’t have enough cash on hand can quickly find itself unable to pay its bills or employees, which can lead to dire consequences for the business.

Improving your cash flow is crucial for ensuring that you have enough capital to cover day-to-day expenses and unexpected costs, like a sudden spike in demand or an emergency service call from one of your patients. 

Examine Claims Closely

• Review claims to ensure they are accurate and complete. Medical providers need to review their claims and ensure that they are accurate, complete, and comply with all the requirements of your insurance carrier. They should also ensure that the claim has been appropriately authorized by a healthcare provider or staff member in charge of processing claims on behalf of an organization.
• Look for missing or incorrect information. Make sure that every piece of the required information is included in the bill so that you can make payment on time without any issues arising later on down the line due to missing information from your medical provider’s side (such as incorrect patient identification numbers).
• Verify signatures on submitted claims. Reviewing each claim carefully is important for ensuring proper authorization for payment; however, it’s equally important to check whether proper signatures were used when submitting these bills for payment approval-

Examine Write-offs

When reviewing your write-offs, look at the reasons for the write-off. Is it because of patient nonpayment or a billing error? If so, then you may have an opportunity to prevent future write-offs by increasing engagement with this patient population.

Review the age of your most recent write-off and how soon it will be coming due. If it’s been over a couple of years since they last paid their bill, consider contacting them again to see if they are still interested in paying their remaining balance now or within another 3-6 months before sending a final notice and moving forward with legal action.

Conclusion

When managing your medical accounts receivable, many things need to be considered. The first step is ensuring you have the right software. Without this, you may find yourself in a situation where your business is not being managed as efficiently as possible, resulting in lost revenue due to higher costs or lousy customer service. Once you have chosen your software, the next step is implementing best practices for medical billing so that your organization can thrive by following these easy steps:

A proper invoice-tracking system ensures that all invoices are handled quickly and accurately. You don’t lose money due to late payments or incorrect information on an invoice.