How to Effectively Reduce AR Days For Cardiology Billing
As a cardiologist, one of the most pressing issues for you would be a higher accounts receivable (A/R) figure. Having too many of your payments outstanding for too many days can put serious pressure on your finances. And this can lead you to think about anything but patient care.
Cardiology practices usually strive to keep their days in AR under 30 days. This helps them ensure a steady flow of cash to keep their facilities up and running. But achieving this number and keeping it consistent is not an easy undertaking. Some practices even have accounts receivable of more than 90 days for some of their claims. In fact, this 90-day AR is a specific metric that cardiologists use to measure their financial health. According to this metric, the percentage of claims with AR over 90 days shouldn’t be more than 20%.
So, if your AR of 90 days is more than 20%, you have got a problem that needs immediate fixing.
In this article, we are going to discuss ways that not only help reduce your overall percentage of 90-day AR but also increase the number of accounts receivable that get cleared in less than 30 days.
What Leads To Increased AR For Cardiology Billing?
There can be several reasons for this, including
- A lousy strategy for eligibility determination
- Claim filing delays
- A higher number of claim rejections
- A higher number of denials and an ungainly appeal process
- Frequent coding errors
- Documentation errors
- Delays in the credentialing process
Preventing all these issues can help keep your cash flow steady. But it can be a difficult undertaking if you handle everything in-house. So your best bet here is to partner with a billing company that has a qualified RCM team.
But for any valid reason, you may want to manage your billing and revenue on-site. In that case, there are some measures you can work on to keep your ARs from piling up.
6 Steps To Reduce Your AR Days In Cardiology Billing
Make Your Cardiology RCM More Front-End Driven
The matter of AR and the number of days it stays outstanding surfaces when you run the entire billing process after rendering services. But if you shift critical aspects of payments around the scheduling time, you can prevent payment delays. For example, you can check for eligibility, benefits, and insurance coverage when scheduling consultations. This way, you won’t have to work extensively for securing payments post-treatment. Secondly, you should communicate financial responsibility to your patients clearly. Discuss everything, including out-of-pocket costs and copays.
You may even charge your patients upfront or while rendering the service. But this would be applicable only for specific cardiology services.
Keep Your RCM Process Error-Free
The accuracy of your RCM process holds vital importance. You must enter correct patient information, use accurate codes, and list everything precisely when entering charges and posting payments. Errors (inadvertent or intentional) can cause claim denials. Therefore, be sure that you have sufficient RCM knowledge to understand the importance of every detail.
Track and Analyze
Streamlining your cardiology RCM will help you avoid most denials. But it won’t eliminate them entirely. Therefore, it is vital to have a foolproof process to track and analyze the denials you get. Vigilant tracking will also spot low-paid claims. After that, you must analyze all the problematic claims to determine the root causes. By the end of all this, you will get enough data required for applying effective fixes.
Go With A Perfect Denial Management Process
Inefficient denial management leads to increased AR days. In fact, a delayed follow-up on denials can diminish their chance of recovery. So, your best bet is to appeal and resubmit denied claims within the timely filing/appeal limit (TFL). But before that, ensure that you have identified and rectified their cause of denial.
Follow Up On Resubmissions
It is vital to follow up on resubmitted claims. This is because payers usually prefer new claims over appeals. If you don’t follow up on those claims often, chances are they will remain unattended for a long time. This will ultimately increase your AR days. Therefore, you must ensure that your RCM team in general and AR management staff in specific have the necessary expertise in pushing resubmissions towards payouts.
Train Your RCM Staff Rigorously
Guidelines and protocols around cardiology billing change every now and then. Failing to keep up with those changes can lead to your billing team adhering to obsolete policies and instructions. This can cause denials and increase AR days as a logical consequence.
So, what to do? Well, the only viable way out is to stay on top of updates in cardiology RCM protocols and guidelines. You must ensure that your billing staff is aware of every change in billing regulations from both the healthcare bodies and payers. Additionally, you should conduct regular training sessions to help your staff stay current with the latest requirements.
Final Thoughts
You can reduce your cardiology AR and increase cash flow with timely action. But first, it is vital to understand the reasons behind your accounts receivable problem. This will solve half of the problem. Then, you must work on the measures we have discussed in this blog.
Another effective way to take care of your A/Rs is to outsource your revenue cycle. One of the best options you can consider in this regard is AltuMED. We have top-rated billing and revenue experts with unparalleled knowledge of streamlining RCM. Contact us and see how we can be of your help.
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