The current economic climate is having a negative effect on physician practices. Flat or declining reimbursement, more regulatory paperwork, health reform, and IT implementation have but pressure on small practices. The good news is that there are ways to tighten up your belt and tune-up your practice going forward.
Improving the revenue cycle starts with some simple changes to effectively manage your practice. The following are some things to consider:
The billing manager does not have an active performance improvement plan to achieve industry standard metrics such as days in A/R (less than 90 days), Net collection rate, and write offs as a percent of total A/R.
- Electronic remits are less than 70% of total payments posted.
- Claims payments first pass rate is less than 85%
- Keep billing office tasks to the these:
Charge management and Edit Resolution
Claim production and payor claims filing
Payment posting and credit balances
Self-pay follow up (collect on front end if possible)
Here are a few more tips to fine tune your practice:
- Keep your IT infrastructure updated
- Review your compliance plan annually
With the current economic climate, your staff should make a concerted effort to generate more revenue with the same level of physician productivity.
Iron Comet Consulting is a certified Platinum Reseller for McKesson and is located in Stockbridge Georgia. We are a full service medical IT and billing company.
