Importance of Accounts Receivable Management
Why Is Accounts Receivable Management Important?
One of the significant challenges a medical billing company faces is its Accounts Receivable (AR) management, increasing bankruptcy if poorly managed. Especially with the recent medical improvements, it is a grueling task for healthcare providers and medical billing companies to manage the medical billing company.
When the expenditure increases and patients with the most deductibles as per their coverage plans increase, managing AR (Accounts Receivable) becomes quite a strenuous task. When an account receivable keeps getting accumulated, it strains the revenue cycle management. Let’s discuss the importance of accounts receivable management here.
What Is Accounts Receivable Management?
The costs of a specific service provided for a patient by any medical coding services or provider, which gets billed during medical billing, is known as Account Receivable, or AR. Be it a small business or a bigger one; it is crucial to ensure that they maintain the most efficient way to collect the account receivables and not strain the revenue cycle.
After the service gets rendered and billed, the invoice gets generated. Later it is sent to the patient or the insurance companies for payment posting. The staff team needs to keep an eye on these account receivables to ensure on-time payments. The entire process, starting from identifying the denied or un-paid claim, re-submitting the accurate claims, reducing the AR period, and annihilating the older account receivables, is known as Accounts Receivable Management.
7 Significant Benefits Of Accounts Receivable Management:
1. Aids In Driving Revenue Consistently – It is fair enough to mention that the payments receivable from either the patient or the insurance company are among the chief sources for generating revenue for any healthcare center. It can enjoy a healthy revenue cycle if all the payments are received without discrepancies or delay when they streamline their Account Receivables (AR). This way, it is so much easier to thrive and focus more on providing quality medical care.
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2. Payments Are Speed-up & Secured – The processing time is considerably affected due to some fixed directives of the state and federal. But the period from the patient’s account gets charged until the time the remaining balance is collected may be reduced or increased by the medical billing specialists. They identify those accounts which are unpaid and coin a strategy and follow the same to secure the payment and ensure on collecting it.
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3. Followed-up Promptly – To have a consistent cash flow, it is vital to follow up on the accounts receivable promptly. An efficient accounts receivable management ensures monitoring all the claims filed and promptly implementing a plan of action if the claims fail to get paid within 30 days’ time window. By doing so, they assist in avoiding outstanding debts or underpayments.
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4. Help To Maintain An Excellent Patient-Provider Relationship – The key to receiving on-time payments without hassles is to possess an excellent patient-provider relationship. Once self-pays are introduced, the medical billing companies get compelled to depend more on the patients than the insurance companies collect payments. The AR management team ensures to brief the patient about the out-of-pocket expenses before rendering the medical care. And in case of any pending charges, they work on reducing the delays by adeptly following up with patients through emails or phone calls.
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5. Keeping Denials At Bay – Managing claims is a crucial requirement in the accounts receivable process. With the help of their specialized and skilled team, the AR management identifies the underlying reason for the denial and quickly works on determining the cause for rejection, addresses the issue, and re-files the claim without much delay. They also probe into the patterns of these denials to analyze for avoiding denials after that.
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6. Enjoy Enhanced & Maximized Count Of Reimbursements – You can enjoy getting reimbursed fully for the medical care and service provided with the assistance of account receivable management’s consistent and prompt follow-up. While the claims get submitted, there are higher chances for discrepancies in the submitted documents causing the insurance payers contract to deny the claims. In such a case, the medical billing team can directly connect with the insurance payer to identify the specific cause for rejection. In case the error had occurred due to missing information in the enclosed documents, right away, they are resolved and re-submitted to ensure payment of AR.
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7. Conducting Frequent Audits & Report Submission – Conduction of audits regularly is one of the top best practices of account receivables management. By doing so, you can detect areas that require improvement, identify the issues, and evaluate the risks involved. Upon concluding such audits, reports are prepared and submitted, which clarifies the outstanding debts, helps keep the claim denials at bay, and ensures collecting payments without delay.
Some Expert Advice For An Efficient Account Receivable Management
• Verify identity thoroughly before extending credit
• Consistent and prioritized medical billing
• Taking time to communicate clearly
• Keep track of aging AR by preparing a report
• Creating an accessible mode of payment to ensure collecting payments without delay
• Prior indication and being sure of the payment terms
• Adhere to your action plan
• Calculating the risk and knowing when to lose the customer
BIS To Your Rescue
It is fair to mention that the medical billing companies encounter tremendous responsibilities consistently, which makes AR management a considerable challenge. Business Integrity Services (BIS) rescue you from this daily struggle and ensure handling your AR efficiently, with our skilled team’s years of experience and expertise. We speed up the payment collection, thereby allowing you to enjoy a healthy revenue cycle. We ensure to conduct prompt follow-ups with the insurance payers and the patients to offer you an excellent patient-provider relationship. Keeping denials at bay helps you to maximize your reimbursements. We ensure you can stay relaxed as we steer you through this challenging process of AR management seamlessly.