Wednesday April 24, 2024
The net collection rate, or NCR is a key performance indicator to identify the financial progress of medical professionals against the services they offer. It is pivotal to monitor and calculate your net collection rates to know where you stand and what improvements your medical practice cash flow needs. With this information about your collection rates, you better know whether you will be able to continue providing your services. For medical professionals, finances are significant for the provision of quality services and the availability of the right tools and equipment.
The struggle for medical practices to maximize their revenue cycle management with an increase in collection rate is real. Collection rates can only possibly increase when a strategic collection plan is in practice. This collection plan involves multiple factors and methods that generate more collections against the services provided without delays, ultimately improving the net collection ratio.
Keep reading this blog to get familiar with how you can effectively improve your medical practice’s collection rates.
What amounts you have received and what amounts you owe are vital to know and monitor. Your collection rates are said to be improved and increased if the amount you owe is reimbursed entirely and promptly. There are certain measures and methods through which medical practices improve their collection rates. If you still struggle to maximize your practice collection rate, then you are surely not doing it the right way.
The following are some effective ways in which you can bring a significant improvement to your collection rates.
If increasing your collection rates is your objective, you need to pay attention to billing at the point of service. Delaying billing your patients after they have received your services has an adverse effect on your net collection rates. Increasing overdue payments is nothing but a burden for your practice, and they do not bring financial success.
With busy schedules and complex procedures, medical practitioners have little to no time to bill their patients. This is why outsourcing to a medical billing company you can trust with your financial responsibility becomes crucial. A reliable billing company will always have a positive impact on your collection rates.
Sometimes, when payment options are very thin, patients and their insurance payers delay payments. Offering a single mode of payment is also troublesome and badly affects net collection rates. It is better to discuss your payment processes and methods with the patients prior to providing services.
Guiding and training your patients regarding the payment methods will help a lot. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the service providers to simplify the payment process without including unnecessary steps and screenings. The simpler the payment process is, the higher your practice collection rates will be.
The front desk staff deals with patients before and after they avail of your services. Their experience matters the most in identifying your collection rates. They must know which services should be billed and which medical billing processes they need to follow.
Failure to improve your practice’s collection rates is not only the fault of the patients and insurance payers who are delaying the payments, but your staff is equally responsible. If they are committing billing mistakes, then you should be the one facing the consequences in the form of lower reimbursement and net collection rates.
It is sometimes possible that the claims you submit to the insurance payer may get denied. But this denial does not mean that it is the end of the world and that you should forget about getting reimbursements. You need to analyze the reason for denials and implement claim denial management strategies.
When you have experts hired to bill for your practice, it is guaranteed that there will be fewer to no claim denials. Even if there are any denials, these billing experts will manage them and keep following up on them till you get the last dollar reimbursed to keep your collection rates increasing.
Delays in reimbursements do not always affect net collection rates, but underpayments and inaccurate payments contribute greatly. Not getting the accurate amounts you have billed your patients and the insurance payer depreciates your practice's financial position.
With an effective and efficient billing process in action, you also need medical billing auditing services. These audits can identify whether the bills are accurate and whether the receivable amounts are according to the amounts mentioned on the bills. Billing audits are always an effective and efficient way to improve your practice's net collection rates by dodging billing errors and reimbursement discrepancies.
Gathering patient demographics is one of the most significant and crucial billing processes. Errors in this information gathered will lead to errors in the medical bills generated, which in turn will affect your collection rates. It is vital to emphasize the correctness and completeness of the information gathered in the initial billing phase.
Jotting down every service received by the patient with the tools and equipment used during the treatment is essential. Missing out on any of this preliminary information will adversely affect your collection rates. Precisely, you will get paid less than the services you have offered.
Communication barriers are the biggest reasons why there are unexpected delays in your reimbursements. Once you identify who the responsible payer is, either the patient or the insurance payer, you need to get in touch with them. Your coordination and communication levels identify the collection rates.
Once you have submitted your claims, you need to keep communicating and following up with the insurance payer. This way, the reimbursement process speeds up, and you get timely responses. Moreover, communication helps in denial management and resolution to reimburse your deserved service charges.
Technical support and assistance always ensure accuracy and precision, and using the right medical billing software always helps. The reason why your collection rates are not improving is because of inefficient and incorrect medical bills. When you include the medical billing software to bill for your services, you gain billing accuracy.
With this improved billing accuracy, the denial rates are reduced, and you get maximum collections for the services offered. Not every medical professional is proficient at using these billing software, which is why outsourcing these services is always beneficial.
An increase in accounts receivable days means a decrease in your practice’s net collection rates. It is crucial for practitioners to keep their A/R days to the lowest because overdue payments bring no financial success or stability. Hiring a reliable medical accounts receivable service will help you keep the A/R days to a minimum.
A decrease in receivable days means you have received your overdue payments, and these service providers will track your receivables. From identifying the reasons for increasing receivable days to following up on them is what the experts do.
The most significant and smartest way to improve your practice’s collection rates is to stick to the coding standards and laws. Moreover, coding errors are also the reason why your billing errors are increasing. Knowledge of the billing codes for each specialty and service is pivotal.
These codes keep changing and updating with time which becomes difficult for the practitioners to keep up with. This is where you need to get in touch with the best medical coding services for your own good. You will see a significant decrease in coding errors with an improvement in billing accuracy.
The contribution of medical billing errors to lower practice collection rates is more than 80%. These medical billing errors lead to claim denials and rejections, automatically leading to a delayed reimbursement process or cycle. While translating the codes into submittable bills, it is recommended to ensure great precision and accuracy.
To avoid these billing errors for your practice’s improved collection rates, you need to choose the best medical billing company. The right medical billing partner will help you navigate the medical billing complexities and avoid the errors that lead to delays in reimbursements.
With the right and experienced medical billing service on your side, net collection rates are no longer an issue. These billing services have experience with the processes and strategies that lead to improved revenue cycle management for your practice. By dodging all the billing inaccuracies, expert billing services maximize your practice’s net collection rates.
Moreover, with a billing service hired, penalties and fines can also be avoided, which affects your net collection rates. By proposing and implementing the right billing processes and procedures, you bill accurately, which saves you from penalties and underpayments.
Your net collection rates in medical billing depend heavily on billing accuracy and the billing team you hire. It’s crucial to hire experts and professionals with experience in billing for various medical specialties. With skilled billing professionals, you can see an increase in your medical practice’s net collection rates and overall financial stability.
Related Posts
Get a Quote
