Clean it up: 3 tips to transform your claims efficiency

All healthcare providers want clean claims, but not all billing teams have the right tools and practices to operate efficiently. They may be working manually, taking too long to complete prior authorizations or struggling to keep up with denied claims all of which can significantly delay the revenue cycle.

If your organization is experiencing any of these billing inefficiencies, it’s time to improve your claims management process. Here are three strategies that will help you and your team work faster and smarter.

1. Streamline eligibility checks

Manual workflows don’t allow for the best utilization of time and talent. Tasks take longer to complete, and the work has a higher chance of error. Automating eligibility verifications can give your team a significant amount of time back in the day. It enables faster claims creation and submission, lowers employee stress and increases patient satisfaction.

Streamlining this process also allows providers to determine eligibility for multiple patients at one time, or one patient’s status with multiple payers. Logging into multiple screens to locate co-pays, termination dates, deductibles and coinsurance information becomes a thing of the past. These electronic systems also store and organize data, making it easy for billers to manage patient eligibility and claims.

2. Improve your denials management process

Denials management can be broken down into two parts: resubmitting denied claims and preventing future denials. Adjusting denied claims should have the same priority as creating new claims, and all claims should be validated before they’re sent and tracked after to ensure they are paid. Validation minimizes the risk of making minor, yet common, mistakes such as:

• Sending claims with incomplete or inaccurate patient information
• Sending claims to the wrong payer
• Submitting duplicate claims

Being more proactive against these issues speeds up your RCM, and sets the tone for ongoing claims efficiency.

3. Simplify patient payments

As patient payment responsibility continues to increase, the need for providers to simplify the payment process will rise as well.

Cash and checks won’t cut it anymore. Patients want to be able to swipe their credit/debit card in your office and submit payments online at their own convenience. Some will prefer payment plans with regular small payments to larger, one-time expenses. Patients may also respond well to automated payment options.

Ensure claims efficiency with Inovalon

Providing various payment options, combined with automated prior authorizations and improved denials management, ensures claims efficiency across the board. Whether you’re sending a claim to insurance companies, Medicare or directly to patients, each payment process should be simple, stress-free and beneficial for all. Make sure your RCM processes are as smooth as they can be with our suite of front- and back-end revenue cycle solutions.

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