At Cosentus we often sign new clients with their accounts receivable in a total mess. Sometimes these clients will tell us that they are barely able to stay afloat, as their medical billing company has not been billing the charges out or they do not refile claims or work denials. These troubled practices are only able to notice the lack of performance once their cash-flow has been badly impacted. However, in our experience there are major signs of an upcoming crisis and these signs can start a good 6-8 months in advance before your cash-flow is disrupted. In this age and time, you got to outsource your billing, but you need to review the performance of your medical billing company from time to time, to make sure they are doing the job, they were expected to do. Often times, medical practices are not even aware of any problems with their revenue cycle management, until the money starts drying up. Most times the practice administrators would want to ask questions or review the performance of their billing service, but they do not know the right questions to ask or are not aware how to investigate and ensure their revenue cycle is being managed efficiently. Cosentus has put together a list of 5 warning signs to watch out for, this article will provide you the right questions to ask your billing service.

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Maintaining a profitable medical practice can be highly demanding, specially when your best focus is on ensuring quality care for your patients. Like any other business your practice needs to operate with a high level of efficiency to remain profitable. If you intend to stay an independent practice at a time when so many other providers are joining the hospital system you must ensure an efficient workflow that would allow you to bill and collect optimally and timely and at the same time you should have some time on your hands to address other important aspects of your business. If you still do in house billing this is high time you think of partnering with an effective medical billing service provider, so you can focus on just two things: Patient care and developing your practice. Cosentus has put together 6 easy tips for you to be able to increase your revenue and stay profitable.

In Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management, the common meaning of a medical billing denial is, when the insurance carrier refuses to pay for a medical claim/bill submitted to them for the healthcare services.

As a practice owner or administrator, you should know very well what these denials can do to the financial health of your independent medical practice. Well, your revenue gets locked in the Accounts Receivable causing you great pains with your cash-flow, revenue and operational efficiency.

For independent medical practices, denial rates typically range around 7-12%, however for better performing practices this drops down under 5%.  Though at Cosentus we have seen practices struggling at about 15-20% as their billing is not optimized, and they lack in expertise and necessary technology. Just so you clearly understand what the significance of these denials is, a 12% denial rate means one out of 8 medical claims will have to reworked by billers or coders and/ or appealed. The cost to rework these claims can add up and dent your revenue significantly.

According to a survey this year, independent medical practices leave 25-30% money on the table. Medical Billing has seen serious advancements in the past decade, with cutting edge technology now available to optimize each aspect of your medical billing and coding, however the results are far from satisfactory. One big reason for this disappointment is the failure on the part of the medical billing service providers to align focus with the financial goals of the healthcare practice. 

Cosentus is a leading provider of optimized medical billing services for independent medical practices. According to us a fully optimized healthcare revenue cycle management process, needs to have these 6 basic elements as an integral part.

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6 Tips to Optimize Medical Billing for Maximized Collections

The Urgent Care industry is going from strength to Strength. What’s been driving this growth is their ability to provide affordable, efficient and quick medical care. This trend is sure to continue and as per projections the industry will hit $21 billion by 2020.

On one hand the industry is booming and on the other hand a lot of clinics are complaining of shrinking profit margins. A lot of this has to do with the inefficiencies in their revenue cycle management processes. The challenges are many ranging from technological deficiencies to lack of billing & coding expertise. Urgent Care clinics must pay close attention to their revenue cycle performance for them to continue being profitable. Cosentus believes every Urgent Care clinic must pay close attention to these 4 areas for maximize their revenue.

The market is becoming more and more competitive and for an Urgent Care clinic to stay profitable and continue to maintain a positive cash flow, the revenue needs to be keep increasing. The scope and perception of urgent care clinics has changed and with this change, as a practice owner/ administrator you will need to invest in new technology, counter rising rent, hire qualified staff and all this can start adding up pretty quickly. So there has to be a continued focus on revenue generation. Cosentus has put together the following 5 tips for you to maximize your revenue.

Negotiating profitable contracts with Insurance carriers is critical to the success of urgent care centers. However, considering that Insurance companies constantly want to reduce their costs, this is easier said than done. The key is letting the insurance carriers know how by paying you more they are still going to save cost. We recommend you try these 4 tricks, if done right, these steps will help you negotiate the best reimbursement from the insurance.

Cash flow is the lifeline of any business and an independent medical practice is no different. As a practice owner/ administrator the best way you can ensure this, is by preventing your revenue from being locked in denials. Management of denied claims is still important and will remain so, however the focus needs to shift from management to prevention. The benefits of this shift are huge but so are the challenges of eliminating the traditional retroactive approach.

According to industry sources 90% of all claims denials could be prevented. However, for this preventive mechanism to work and deliver best results, all departments in the revenue cycle need to collaborate and work in cohesion. Once you have cream of the crop practices implemented throughout the processes from patient access to claims submission, you can reduce your future denial rate by 50-60% and enjoy sustained cash-flow.