Medical Billing Forum
General Category => General Questions => : sagemb January 07, 2010, 02:28:03 AM
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I've been billing for a Gastro doc and his PA for some years now.
Everything seems fine and hunky dory.
Until I recently met a new doctor that's in works to sign up with my billing.
Some of the things he's told me about other billers made me think...
What if I don't know all that I should?
Maybe, I can up my skills some where?
Where would you go to get trained in advanced billing?
Adam
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I don't think I have ever seen anything for "advanced" medical billing. Only for beginners.
Michele
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Same Here!
For example, my doc wants me to get the bills out as fast as possible so that the payments would come in timely manner.
However, the recent doc I spoke to said that he's seen more experienced billers send out bills once in a week or sometimes 2 weeks. He didn't explain much about why, but said something about the deductibles. It didn't make much sense to me without any details. But I can tell that I don't know all that I should in this business even after 3 and half years. :-\
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First off, I have seen physicians who send in claims at the end of the week as well. I worked for one that REFUSED to send like that. We had a split schedule. Mornings then afternoon. After he last client, I had to send the claims then, and then send the afternoon when I left, and sit until the reports came back to see if any denials came up. As far as deductibles are concerned, what he is doing is allowing another claim to go first in case the person has a deductible. This is crazy as he should be doing up front collections if the clients benefits have been verified and show the deuctible has not been met. I send NC medicaid by Thursday, and they have been processed and set to pay by the next check write which is that Tuesday and its all EFT so no later than Thursday the provider will have his money. Sending in claims daily helps the revenue come in.
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I find they vary. I have some that insist on faxing and having it done daily, some that want to do it monthly! I personally like to bill once a week, for the previous week. I find that keeps accounts receivable consistent. But, I do try to comply with their request, unless it is something outrageous.
Michele
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Most of mine like it done daily to keep the cash flow the greatest. I personally like weekly myself but I too try to abide by their wishes the best I can.
I don't think there is anything out there for "Advanced" either. I think utilzing mediums such as this forum and other groups and absorbed everything you can is all you can do besides learning as you go. You will never know everything, you just have to be good at researching and finding the answers when you get into the "advanced" world of medical billing.
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I do billing every 10 days to keep the cash flow steady. Plus my clearing house charges per claim, so I'm trying to keep our overhead down too.
I would love to see an Advanced billing seminar, but who can get the correct info out of the insurance companies to train the billers? I've said it before, the insurance companies seem to keep tweaking their processing just to avoid paying!
I really appreciate the "tricks" I've learned on this site.
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What difference does it make if you do it every 10 days or every day if its being paid by claim? The number of claims you submit won't vary. I'd prefer to submit DAILY. The reason I started my company was to help increase revenue. 10 days delay in billing is an additional 10 days for reimbursements to come in. If there is a denial on your claim that is 10 days you waited to find out about it, then it denies, you get it and wait for the next batch to go out........not feeling that at all!!!
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Amen! Waiting 10 days does not do anyone justice. That will reak havoc on the A/R. Weekly is the longest you should go and Daily is the best as far as keeping the cash flow at its highest for the provider. The provider is not going to see how you are improving his A/R which will make it tough on getting referrals.
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What difference does it make if you do it every 10 days or every day if its being paid by claim? The number of claims you submit won't vary. I'd prefer to submit DAILY. The reason I started my company was to help increase revenue. 10 days delay in billing is an additional 10 days for reimbursements to come in. If there is a denial on your claim that is 10 days you waited to find out about it, then it denies, you get it and wait for the next batch to go out........not feeling that at all!!!
Because if we have 3 dates of service for a patient on one claim, I only pay for 1 claim, not 3, if I were to bill daily. It's for chiropractic, and just our office, so it may be different for multiple MD's who only see a patient once every 6 weeks, or once a year. Is that logical?
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I prefer daily as well. If you are a billing service, do you charge per claim (flat) or a percentage? Seems you will lose revenue if you are charging per claim, placing 3 service dates on that one claim that you waited on for 10 days and bill. If not daily it should be at least weekly. If you are in the office billing you are saving on the number of claims to the clearinghouse but losing the benefit of money that could come in sooner for the provider and perhaps gain interest on the earlier payment. I guess it comes down to what's most important for the provider, collecting payments sooner or saving a few dollars on the clearinghouse.
Melissa
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What difference does it make if you do it every 10 days or every day if its being paid by claim? The number of claims you submit won't vary. I'd prefer to submit DAILY. The reason I started my company was to help increase revenue. 10 days delay in billing is an additional 10 days for reimbursements to come in. If there is a denial on your claim that is 10 days you waited to find out about it, then it denies, you get it and wait for the next batch to go out........not feeling that at all!!!
Because if we have 3 dates of service for a patient on one claim, I only pay for 1 claim, not 3, if I were to bill daily. It's for chiropractic, and just our office, so it may be different for multiple MD's who only see a patient once every 6 weeks, or once a year. Is that logical?
I don't like billing different dates on a claim. You have to TRUST the processor at teh insurance dept way too much. I understand your logic, but ...too risky to me.
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Same Here!
For example, my doc wants me to get the bills out as fast as possible so that the payments would come in timely manner.
However, the recent doc I spoke to said that he's seen more experienced billers send out bills once in a week or sometimes 2 weeks. He didn't explain much about why, but said something about the deductibles. It didn't make much sense to me without any details. But I can tell that I don't know all that I should in this business even after 3 and half years. :-\
He's probably talking about the medicare deductibles. We all know at the begining of the year if you hurry and send your claims out, it will probably go to deductible with medicare. I think medicare considers it "not allowed" to hold claims for that reason. So, for that reason, Lets just say I take it easy in January.
And for the other remark someone made, I bill for Hospitalists. I put multiple days on one claim. It is easier that way, and a lot easier to keep up with. For the person that billed for the Chiropractor, and the pt is coming in several times a week, I would bill that on one claim also
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That's the one thing that I don't like about medical billing. In my years working for a large corporation, when I was learning something new, there was always a more experienced person around to ask questions.
Here, I sometimes wonder if I am missing something. There is no one to ask!!! I am so glad I found this site.
My worst nightmare is I am missing something really simple and one day the checks stop coming in, LOL.
My doctor sees about 8 to 11 patients per day. She schedules a patient every 45 minutes, starting at 10AM, the last patient leaves at 8:45pm.
I send in the days claims before I go home. I average about 3 weeks from submission (I use Office Ally) to the time the checks come in the mail.
I track with each patient how much their insurance pays, and let the doc know every night how much we put in the "pipeline".