Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice

1
Reducing AR in Primary Care
Practice
2
Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice
Challenges of AR in Primary Care
Practice Accounts receivable refers to the
outstanding payments that a primary care practice
is owed by patients, insurance companies, or
other third-party payers for services rendered.
Managing accounts receivable can be challenging
for primary care practices due to various factors
including, changing payment models, billing
complexities, claim denials, managing unpaid
patient balances, and high administrative costs.
Overall, reducing accounts receivable (AR) in a
primary care practice can be complex and
challenging, requiring ongoing attention and
resources to ensure timely and accurate payment
for services rendered. Legion Healthcare
Solutions is a leading medical billing company
providing complete billing and coding services.
While working with various primary care
practices, some of the processes contributed more
towards reducing accounts receivables. Such
processes are discussed in this article.
Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice Verify
Insurance Benefits Verifying insurance benefits
prior to providing healthcare services is an
important step in reducing accounts receivable in
primary care. Verifying eligibility and benefits
helps to ensure that patients are eligible for
the services they are seeking and that the
services are covered by their insurance plan. By
doing so, providers can avoid costly billing
errors and reduce the risk of unpaid claims.
Verifying eligibility and benefits includes
processes like gathering insurance data,
contacting the insurance company, confirming
patients eligibility, determining coverage, and
documenting the information.
3
Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice
Focus on Clean Claim Submission Clean claim
submission in primary care billing refers to the
process of submitting accurate and complete
medical claims to insurance companies for
reimbursement. Your focus on clean claim
submission will not only reduce rejected claims
but also ensure timely insurance payments.
Healthcare practices with efficient revenue cycle
management have more than 95 clean claim
submission rate i.e., insurance companies have
accepted 95 of claims for processing (as such
claims are error-free). Try to improve your
revenue cycle management operations to achieve
more than a 90 clean claim ratio. Denial
Management Most practices focus on quick claim
submission without having major efforts on the
claim follow-up process. To reduce your accounts
receivable, you should get payment remarks about
every single submitted claim. Submitted claims
should be categorized as paid, partially paid,
and denied. You should form a denial management
team who would work on such denied and partially
paid claims. Your denial management team should
consist of billers, coders, accounts receivable
experts, and providers. Your denial management
team will identify resolutions for common denial
reasons and claim denial trends.
4
Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice

• Collect Patient Responsibility
• As more patients are accepting high deductible
  plans nowadays, patient responsibility has
  increased to a great extent. Following practice
  management activities will help you in the timely
  collection of patient responsibility
• Offer payment plans Offer payment plans to
  patients who are unable to pay the full amount at
  once. This can help patients to pay their bills
  in a timely manner and reduce the number of
  outstanding balances. Offering payment plans can
  make it easier for patients to manage their
  bills, reducing the risk of delinquency and
  increasing the likelihood of timely payments.
• Send timely and accurate bills Send bills in a
  timely and accurate manner. Make sure the bills
  are itemized, easy to understand, and include all
  relevant information. If patients have questions
  or concerns, provide them with the necessary
  support.
• Train staff on billing and collections Train
  staff on billing and collections to ensure they
  have the skills and knowledge to effectively
  manage accounts receivable. This includes
  training on insurance verification, billing
  procedures, and collection practices.
• Follow up on outstanding balances Follow up on
  outstanding balances regularly. Send reminders to
  patients who have outstanding balances, and
  consider contacting patients who have past-due
  balances directly to discuss payment options.
• Collect co-payments and deductibles at the time
  of service Collecting co-payments and
  deductibles upfront can help reduce accounts
  receivable by ensuring that patients pay their
  portion of the bill at the time of service.

5
Reducing AR in Primary Care Practice
By implementing these strategies, a primary care
practice can reduce its accounts receivable and
improve its financial health. If you are low on
skilled manpower or cant dedicate much time
towards billing activities, then we can assist
you in reducing AR for primary care practice. Our
skilled primary care coders and billers have
great experience billing for various insurance
companies. To know more about our primary care
coding and billing services, contact us at
727-475-1834 or email us at info_at_legionhealthcares
olutions.com
6
(No Transcript)