Running your practice is much more than diagnosing illnesses, prescribing medication, or performing surgery. There’s also the business side of running a medical office, or any business really. Having medical billing procedures in place–and sticking to them–will ensure you’re being reimbursed for all of the services you offer.
Your medical billing procedures should start with your initial patient contact and end when the bill is paid. That might sound like a lot, but if you break it down into smaller steps, it’s not so daunting. Following the right medical billing process is a critical step in keeping your healthcare practice up and running.
If you’re just getting started with medical billing, or if you’re looking to improve your current system, here are a few key steps to include in your medical billing procedures:
- Register the patient
- Verify insurance
- Record visit information
- Send visit information to the billing team
- Add appropriate codes
- Prepare medical claim
- Review claim
- Insurance review
- Prepare patient statement
- Payment/follow-up if necessary
Create a patient registration form that captures all of the important data you need, including patient demographics, provider, insurance identifiers, and other pertinent information. This information will be used for every following visit and the medical record will be updated as needed.
When patients come in for their appointment, verify their insurance information and coverage and ask for an insurance card to make sure you get the correct info. This step is important to avoid any billing surprises later on. On repeat visits, you’ll still want to make sure they have the same insurance information you have on file.
During the appointment, document all of the services and procedures performed. This documentation will be used by medical coders to apply the codes that most represent the services provided. On the first visit, you want to get a medical history and review it for changes on subsequent visits. All of this information will be included in the medical transcription.
Once the transcription is reviewed, it will be prepared and sent to your medical billers. Some providers have an in-house team or use a third party like MEDIMAXSOL Medical Services to handle the coding and billing. That’s why making sure the record of the visit is thorough and clearly described. This is when the procedure codes are applied to the visit record, also known as a charge entry.
Let MEDIMAXSOL Help With Your Medical Billing Procedures
We know it can be overwhelming working with patients, the business of running a practice, working with insurance companies, and so on. As legal requirements change, codes are updated, insurance processes are altered, it can seem you’ve only just mastered the last round of updates.
You went to school to practice medicine, not run the business office. MEDIMAXSOL Medical Billing has decades of experience with medical billing procedures and works with hundreds of healthcare providers to keep their books up to date and business best practices streamlined.
We can either take over the medical billing for your company or help train your staff to be more efficient, make fewer mistakes, and keep up to date on patient billing. That way you can concentrate on treating your patients and giving them the best care possible.
