The importance of proper general surgery billing cannot be understated. Improper billing could lead to a heavy financial burden on the patient or even lawsuits. The following pitfalls are issues that many hospitals and medical facilities experience and can be avoided with practice and patience.
Not Handling Contracts Properly
Medical billing contracts can provide your patients with a better understanding of their charges. However, some facilities may not handle this process properly, setting up inaccurate or even illegal contracts by mistake because of a few simple errors in wording.
Hire a medical billing team who can help create these contracts for you. This outside source will work directly with you and your patients to provide legal and binding agreements. Though it will cost more money, it does minimize the risk of serious errors and mistakes.
Improper Insurance Billing
Another common general surgery billing problem is improper insurance procedures. For example, facilities may charge the wrong insurance, fail to charge insurance, or handle the filing processes inaccurately. Avoiding this problem requires double-checking with the client multiple times, building a strong relationship with insurance companies, and creating systems for checking these issues.
This problem is severe because it could violate OSHA standards in some situations. After all, OSHA asks that all employers keep employee medical records if they’ve been injured or damaged, including up to 30 years if they’ve been exposed to toxic substances or other harmful agents. Ensuring that you use insurance properly will help to minimize this serious risk.
Not Handling Aging Reports
Beyond simple facility-to-patient practices, medical facilities may also neglect important steps that help to keep their facility running smoothly. For example, not running aging reports is a major mistake because it helps to give you a better understanding of your financial health as a firm.
This practice helps with your billing by providing a better understanding of what your general surgery billing practices provide for your facility. If you find that they are inadequate due to the weakness of your hospital in another area, you may need to upgrade in some way.
These simple steps help catch common errors and mistakes and keep your billing as smooth as possible. Make sure that you reach out to any professionals in your area who can help give you the advice that you need. Many hospital billing firms exist to help in this long-term process.
