Author Topic: How Do You Track A/R  (Read 5445 times)

billspecial

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How Do You Track A/R
« on: July 23, 2009, 01:31:51 AM »
I have a provider that wants me to work on his A/R only. How do I track what claims are mine when the payments come in? Do I ask for remote access to their system and work out of their system or just get a copy of the A/R report and work off of that? I remember someone asking this question before but I could not find it on the site. If someone wouldn't mind repeating themselves I would sure appreciate it. I don't know anyone who owns a billing company and is willing to give me advice, Please help, Thank you.

PMRNC

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2009, 08:33:25 AM »
Quote
I have a provider that wants me to work on his A/R only. How do I track what claims are mine when the payments come in? Do I ask for remote access to their system and work out of their system or just get a copy of the A/R report and work off of that? I remember someone asking this question before but I could not find it on the site. If someone wouldn't mind repeating themselves I would sure appreciate it. I don't know anyone who owns a billing company and is willing to give me advice, Please help, Thank you.

This depends, you can do it any number of ways, has the provider already signed a contract? Have you submitted a proposal? Personally to begin I work off the reports and track in my software but if claims have to be sent I work off their system, but again it really depends on what you are comfortable with and what their needs are. After you both come to a general process of the work flow you will want to make sure your contract reflects the process so it's clear.
Linda Walker
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www.billerswebsite.com

Michele

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2009, 09:37:38 AM »
Depending on the type of A/R you may want to consider a flat fee or an hourly rate.  You may spend a lot of time and the claim may not end up ever getting paid.  We have done this type of work and once we charged a flat monthly fee and others we've charged hourly.  A couple times we did a % but it was higher than our regular % and we were fairly sure the claims would be paid.

Michele
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billspecial

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2009, 01:50:06 PM »
Thank you for the advice. No I have not signed a contract yet that's scheduled for Tuesday of this week. Michele you have a good point about charging a monthly rate versus a percent. Some of the claims may not get paid and if I charge a percent I may be selling myself short. But on the flip side if I charge a monthly fee and start to bring in a ton of money on the A/R I've sold myself short that way. This provider is an Orthopedic Surgeon he has four offices and the A/R is big, the claims are no older than a year (and they would like me to keep the new charges current). I know the cut off time for most insurance companies is a year. If I were to charge a monthly rate of $500.00 in your opinion, would that be too low?

Pay_My_Claims

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2009, 03:48:05 PM »
Thank you for the advice. No I have not signed a contract yet that's scheduled for Tuesday of this week. Michele you have a good point about charging a monthly rate versus a percent. Some of the claims may not get paid and if I charge a percent I may be selling myself short. But on the flip side if I charge a monthly fee and start to bring in a ton of money on the A/R I've sold myself short that way. This provider is an Orthopedic Surgeon he has four offices and the A/R is big, the claims are no older than a year (and they would like me to keep the new charges current). I know the cut off time for most insurance companies is a year. If I were to charge a monthly rate of $500.00 in your opinion, would that be too low?

Are you tracking or "working" the AR??? If you are working the AR you should be charging a percentage of what you bring in. If you are just doing follow up...meaning checking the status and emailing the employee about this or that, I would do a flat fee. You are not bringing in money just by "tracking" . They are doing the claims submissions. What you can do is charge a flat based fee for tracking and tell him that you are going to charge a percentage if you have to actually work a denied claim etc. This way you can log all your cases and since they are posting and you are logging in the system you will know what was paid. Even if you don't youc an always call to check the status. Once you call the ins company and know that patient xxx was paid on xxx in the amount of xxx, log it and send an invoice for your money.

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2009, 03:48:05 PM »

PMRNC

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2009, 04:36:15 PM »
If she's working the A/R and wants to charge a % there are more variables to research such as collection laws, etc.
That's why I recommended an hourly rate, then you get paid fair market value for the work put in. If I am WORKING the A/R I charge $1.00 per account setup and then $18 an hour (NY, NJ) When going hourly it always works out fair to both the provider and the consultant/biller.  It's much easier than coming up with a formula and then having to worry about issues such as fee-splitting, collection regs, etc.  The $18 an hour I charge is for all work UP to the point of turning over the account to a full service collection agency/service, once I have worked the accounts as far as I can up to that point I make a recommendation to the provider and I'm done. No waiting for them to pay me my monthly invoice, no having to worry about getting all the EOB's. If they don't let me know something was paid and I'm still working the account, they pay me for that time they wasted.   JMO.  Also going a % you have to remain competitive to the collection agencies and then you could really undercut yourself because you have to make it cost effective for them to hire you over the collection agency who would do full service collections.
Linda Walker
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Pay_My_Claims

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2009, 05:49:20 PM »
I can understand that however the way her question is posted isn't like she is working AR as in Cash Recovery, but more so continuous. They are submitting the claims and she is following up. "and they would like me to keep the new charges current" I totally don't like the set up of this deal

billspecial

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2009, 11:44:01 PM »
Maybe I'm confusing everyone. I will be working the A/R meaning following up on old claims resubmitting, appeals and whatever else needs to be done. Also, whatever else shows up on the A/R they would like me to keep current. When the account needs to be turned over to our collections department (internal) separate rates apply. I have just never worked with a client that requested us to work on their A/R alone.

PMRNC

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2009, 11:50:19 PM »
Ok, that's not so unusual. When working the A/R one of the top priorities is to keep it current, but that's a bit confusing since you are not actually doing the billing so it sounds like they want you to stay ON top of the current (followup) BEFORE it gets to the problem time frame. Are you going to load these into your PM software or will you be working remotely or logging into their system or account? 

I'm still sticking with my advice that hourly is the way to go.
Linda Walker
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billspecial

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2009, 12:16:49 AM »
I will be working remotely through their software and out of mine to track the balance owed to us. Which seem like extra work entering patient demos ect. When you suggest a hourly rate is that based on a 8 hour day? Silly question but trying to get all the details. Thank you

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2009, 12:16:49 AM »

Michele

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2009, 01:20:54 AM »
I think Linda is right and the hourly rate would be best.  If you decide to do a flat monthly fee I think $500 may be too cheap.  It won't take too many months to get things cleared up and it will be a lot of work in a short time period. 

Michele
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PMRNC

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2009, 11:23:54 AM »
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When you suggest a hourly rate is that based on a 8 hour day? Silly question

Not a silly question at all, you should discuss this with the provider and it might help for you to give him an estimate and then address it in your contract such as " The hourly rate of  $ ___ of will be based on the total hours worked within the monthly period" Or "The hourly rate of $___ will be based upon an average 8 hour day and will be billed Weekly.
I myself would go to the one that will allow me to work the hours I need to work to get the job done w/out constraints on my flexibility. It also won't lock you into all 8 hour days if you have other clients that could be a hard thing to accomplish.
Linda Walker
Practice Managers Resource & Networking Community
One Stop Resources, Education and Networking for Medical Billers
www.billerswebsite.com

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Re: How Do You Track A/R
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2009, 11:23:54 AM »