We measure the collection rate billing

How are your collections? This question is for doctors and over again with their tax advisors, coaches, students, partners, prospects, the billing company, the spouse and all others with an interest in the success of the practice. Most doctors respond with a report, say to 90%. The higher the number, the higher the collection rate. But what does this number, and is really determining how successful the practice is to collect?

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Normally, the ratio is obtained by simply collecting the total amount of money in a given month by the total amount of expenses for the practice of writing published in this month split. For example, a practice that bills $ 100,000 in January. You collect $ 75,000 in January. The collection is 75%. Easy to understand and easy to calculate.

The problem with this approach is that, on average (according to MGMA), doctors may wait up to 73 daysReceive payments on services rendered. The $ 75,000 raised in January was actually in November and December, sales and services may have been made in October and November. What happens if the practice had generated $ 200,000 a month on the 1st January, and suddenly fell to $ 100,000 a month? The $ 75,000 collected in January seems wrong. On the other hand, if the practice was billing $ 75,000 a month to January 1, then the $ 75,000 collected in Januaryis presented as 100% of the bill.

But there are more complications. And if the practice had been the subject of the NPI in December or EOBs sent to the wrong address? In this case, part of $ 75,000, which was published in January actually paid in recent months. This means that the current ratio collections is a bit 'less than 75%.

So with all these problems, because their billing practices to measure the performance ratio with the collections? TheAnswer all too often, is that they have no choice. Many practice management systems easily provide monthly reports that show posted the fees and collections recorded in a particular month, but only a couple of alternative ways of looking at the collection of performance data.

Volume orders are important because practices of knowing how much money you need in a given month. You must arrange this with their bank accounts, to ensure that all money is accounted forfor. From there it is easy to divide two numbers and get the cash collections. Unfortunately, as we saw earlier, this number does not make sense when you really want to get their accounting to measure performance.

The alternative: Take back all Tie Service

To monitor the performance of billing, we have to compare apples to apples. We want to see what the benefits were made in a given month are actually paid. For example, if the office has seen 500The patients in October and has generated a value of $ 100,000 in expenses for visits, we would like to know how much of $ 100,000 was previously paid, regardless of when the money was sent.

The key is to compare the fees, payment by the date of service on the claims and not to the days when they were published. It is not so easy to do. During the tests, checks received in one month, or look at their account statements to see how much money came inin a given month is a long time to look through and compare each service appointments EOB, so you can see how much was paid for services during the month of October.

To do this effectively, a practice that was established to invest in the software that needs this feature a. For example, in Vericle, you can use the $-Stats report. This report can show a cost-sharing than collections for a specific date range of service providers, treatment codes, insurance and otherCriteria.

Slice, dice and drill-in

Once you have a high level view of data, you need to make sense of it. To do this, it is useful if the software allows you to sort and filter the report dynamically. For example, if we look at a breakdown by CPT code, you should be able to sort and filter the percentage paid by all accounts with a total amount of less than $ 1,000. This eliminates the "noise" and allows you to focus on problem areas.

OnceYou have the problem is in sight, it is time to look at individual examples. This is called "drilling", and the software should make it easier to do it. In Vericle, you can click on any line of this drill line and the claims that make up that particular bucket. The list of demands also contains important information about the status of the request, the total amount invoiced and paid for, and an excerpt of the audit log so you can easily see how the team handled follow-upthe complaint.

Implications for practice profitability

Review a data-collection service ratio as described above can have a significant positive impact on your practice. Comparing apples to apples, you can more accurately measure the performance of the team billing, then quickly point problem areas and collection easily recognize such claims. Then, to take measures to remedy the problem and increase collections.

We measure the collection rate billing