Do This Every Monday Morning to Improve Cash Flow in Your Practice
Today I want to share a tip on how to keep your insurance claims paid in a timely manner. There are so many things to focus on at the front desk and waiting to get paid from insurance companies should not be one of them.
This is an easy system that you can implement and it will make worrying about insurance paying on time a thing of the past.
Make sure you’re filing your claims the same day you’re providing the services and that you’re proactive with attaching any necessary x-rays or narratives. Don’t wait for an insurance company to ask you for more information. It’s important to anticipate what they might need or what they might ask for and attach it from the very beginning.
Every Monday morning, print a report of all your claims that are over 30 days. At 31 days you want to call that insurance company and get a status update on why you haven’t received payment.
After you’ve called all of the claims that are over 30 days, repeat that process again the following Monday, skipping any claims you’ve called on the past 3 weeks because you want to give them at least a few weeks to process before repeating that phone call.
Some practices follow a similar protocol, but instead of calling the insurance company, they’re simply refiling it. And I encourage you to pick up the phone and call because there’s a reason they didn’t get the claim and pay it the first time.
You want to be more proactive with this process. You should never have any claims over 90 days. There’s no reason that if you stay on top of it, you can’t keep that cash flow coming in from insurance companies and not have to worry about chasing after those dollars.
One phrase that I like to share with my clients is, “It’s easier to keep up than catch up.” Catching up on a long insurance aging report can be time consuming and stressful, so keep on top of it and you can focus on more important things like taking care of your patients!