Medical Billing Management Advice for Small Practices

As a physician in a small practice, one of the things that is important for you is ensuring that you maintain your cash flow. This is easier said than done when you're trying to keep up with appointments, continuing education, updating your records, and managing your billing. If you're looking to improve your billing process and revenue cycle, here are some things that might help.

Update Your Technology

One of the best ways to stay on top of your billing process is to take advantage of the technology available to you. Billing software is a great tool for keeping everything in one place, but it isn't the single solution. The billing software is a great place to start, but you also need to ensure that it's consistently up to date so that you have accurate billing rates for things like Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Mistakes in billing can delay your cash receipt, so make sure that you're staying up to date and accurate in your figures and regulations.

In addition, having the right software can also make it easier for you to spot denial trends. For example, if many of your invoices are being denied for a single reason, you'll be able to see why at a glance. In addition, you'll be able to quickly and easily spot any particular client who is denying many invoices for unjustified reasons.

Retain a Medical Billing Service Provider

The easiest way to simplify your billing is to retain the help of a medical billing service such as Chart Perfect. These companies specialize in handling all of the billing and payment tracking services. This ensures that your bills are being sent and managed in a timely way without losing the time or staff work hours required to do that in-house.

You can establish a contract with a service so that you know exactly what services you'll receive and what they expect from you. This is the most consistent way to address your billing, and it takes the stress off you so you can focus on your patients.

Keep Your Patient Records Updated

One of the biggest problems with billing is ensuring that your patients actually receive their bills. To ensure that these bills get where they need to be, you should make a point to update your patient records every time they are in the office. Get their most recent address and phone number information as well as their employer details and Social Security number. This gives you a way to not only locate them, but also ensure that you can simplify collections if necessary.