At Cosentus, we often sign new clients who have a very messy accounts receivable. Sometimes these clients will tell us that they are barely able to stay afloat, as their medical billing company has not been billing their 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 negatively impacted. However, in our experience, there are predictable signs of an upcoming crisis thatoften start a good 6-8 months before your cash-flow is disrupted. In this day and age, you must outsource your billing, but alsoreview the performance of your medical billing company every now and then to make sure they are doing their expected job.

Often times, medical practices are not even aware of any problems in their revenue cycle management until they begin to lose money. Most times the practice administrators will want to ask questions or review the performance of their billing service, but do not know the right questions to ask and are not aware of 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, along with the right questions to ask your billing service. 

Download free checklist- The Ultimate AR checklist

The two most integral positions in the success of any healthcare practice are the physician and the medical biller. While the physicians work hard to provide the best care to the patient, it is expected of the biller to ensure optimal reimbursement for the physicians. We continuously speak toindependent physician practices and are often told that their practice is consistently losing money! Some would say too many claim denials are rocking their boat. Others would say the AR is so out of control. This is certainly not acceptable, but the real question is... Why does this happen? 

The two most important positions in the success of any healthcare practice when it comes to increasing revenue is the physician and the medical biller. While the physicians work hard to provide the best care to the patient, it is expected of the biller to ensure optimal reimbursement for the physicians. We keep talking to independent physician practices and we are often told their practice is losing money all the time! Some would say too many claim denials are rocking their boat, others would say the AR is so out of control. This is certainly not acceptable, but the real question is why does this happen?

Download our FREE Billing and AR checklist: The Ultimate AR checklist! 

The ever-changing healthcare landscape means coders and billers also must continuously update their skills and concepts to stay on top of the changes to make sure they are not leaving money on the table. With the introduction of EMR and advanced practice management software, the general belief is that the standards of billing and collection will be like never before - with every claim being billed out accurately and collected upon in a timely manner. Unfortunately, according to industry sources, independent medical practices are still leaving as much as 30% potential revenue on the table due to the inefficiencies in the billing and collection process. This happens because the rejection and denial rate is still too high and almost 50% of denials never get worked resulting in 5-7% loss of potential revenue. When you have too many denials your revenue can quickly get locked in Accounts Receivable creating a serious impact to your cash flow.

Cosentus is a leading medical billing service provider having optimized the billing and collection processes for numerous practices, enabling them to maximize their revenue and get rid of their cash flow issues. The purpose of this article is how you can implement these basic changes to your existing billing process and see your revenue grow by 25-30%.

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.

Download free checklist- The Ultimate AR checklist

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