Timely Filing

[raevenblue]

Hello there Michele - or anyone 

My name is Eve and Im just joining your site/forums!  Im excited to have found this site and look forward to checking back for the latest is medical billing.

My question for you is simple:

I work for an ObGyn that hired a billing company about 3 years ago.  They were brought in to "clean up" our A/R... and what was left from the previous billers.  Unfortunately, as you may have heard countless times, the company did NOT bring to the table what they had promised in regards to getting old OLD claims paid.

These claims go all the way back to 2006.  I have seperated our A/R's by the year and I am wondering if I should even be bothering to try to collect on such old claims. 2006-2008.  I do have timely filing reports that go as far back as these claims.

Please help!

Thanks!
Yvette

[PMRNC]

I always like to give the benefit of the doubt.  Can you say you have read the billing company's contract regarding old accounts? Before you do anything you will need to look at the actual contract before you do anything. Maybe they "Brought it to the table" but for some reason wasn't address in the contract the provider signed?
Maybe there were certain conditions stated?

you need to take a look at the contract and see what it was they were contracted to do.

[raevenblue]

hmmm.... that is a good point.  I will ask my doctor what they originally proposed.  But, if they did in fact  say they would get this "old money", and still haven't done much about it... is it even possible to get any money from that long ago?

Thanks for responding, I really appreciate the advice!

[midwifebiller]

I have had success in working with very old maternity claims--claims as old as three years got paid.  First, you need to know the status on the claim. Was it never received or was it denied?  That will tell you whether you need to rebill with proof of timely filing or file an appeal.  I called the insurance companies and asked them what their time limit was for filing an appeal and/or rebilling with proof. With some companies it was only one year, but most were two or three years.  Some companies had a one year time limit for filing with proof, but a longer time limit for filing an appeal. I doubt you could get 2004 claims reprocessed, but it would be worth a phone call to find out.