Managing a cosmetic surgery practice is a complicated task. There are many government guidelines you have to stick to, and there is also the issue of a decrease in revenue per patient. One process that remains the same is collecting more from patients who haven’t paid. Most cosmetic surgeons nowadays hire medical billing companies to do their billing for them. If you still want to handle your billing for yourself, here are some tips.
Collect Accurate Patient Data
If you want to continue your billing with fewer inconveniences, ensure that you collect accurate patient data early. As soon as the patient calls to book an appointment, you should get all the necessary data from them before the appointment is scheduled. You must find out whether the patient is looking to address an injury or because of an accident. If you are understaffed or unable to collect data accurately, you can hire the services of medical billing companies.
Verify Insurance Coverage
Also, you must ensure that the patient’s demographic data is entered correctly. This includes finding out whether the patient is covered for the condition they want to be addressed. There are a lot of software programs you can use to verify if the patient has coverage. This can be done through an API that links to the insurance provider’s website. You must make sure that this is done in advance, not after the patient has come. If there are exceptions, make sure to follow up before the procedure is done on the patient. This will allow the patient time to fix the issues with their insurance provider before they come into the office.
Verify the Necessary
Once the patient arrives at the office, verify all their information. After that, you will want to make a copy of their insurance card. Also, find out if they have secondary coverage. Lastly, you will also want to verify the reason for their visit so that everything is captured accurately. Failing to verify details can lead to complications when you want to bill the patient.
Bill Quickly
The majority of insurance companies have a time limit on billing. This means that if you delay billing, you might not end up getting paid. Therefore, you must ensure that you bill instantly. Ideally, you have to make it so that your office bills every day. If you bill within 24 hours of the patient’s visit, you will increase the collectability of the charge.
When billing, you must also take into consideration payment security. 90% of medical billing companies indicate that payment security is crucial when collecting patient payments. Apart from that, you must make sure you employ educated people so that you don’t end up with unnecessary errors.
