The often complicated process of medical billing can be difficult on patients and healthcare providers alike. The coding on medical bills can cause confusion for the patient who may have a number of requests to change the bill because of errors or extra charges that do not reflect the services they received.
For a healthcare provider, handling medical bills can be time-consuming task to deal with through your already limited resources. The best option is to prevent as many errors as possible before bills are sent out and to use resources available to help things run more smoothly.
- Review Bills as Much as Possible – The more errors contained in a bill the more time will be spent negotiating the bill with the patient. Make an effort to remove errors first before the bill has to be disputed.
- Know the Most Common Patient Disputes – When reviewing the bills always remain aware of what disputes come up the most so that you can avoid those types of problems on the bill. If there is something particularly problematic then take time to prevent the same errors from happening again.
- Resolve Disputes Quickly– If you do get involved with a patient disputing their bill it is best to resolve the issue right away before they file a complaint. This can create more of a hassle and delay the process of getting final payment for the bill.
- Reimburse Patients that are Overcharged – When a patient finds a legitimate error and they were overcharged for something the best solution is to reimburse the money they are owed. This will prevent the dispute from growing into a larger problem and will allow you to receive the rest of the payment more quickly.
- Maintain a Good Reputation with Billing – Sending patients accurate bills and resolving disputes fairly can not only cut down on the time spent in handling medical bills but can improve your reputation as a healthcare provider. Frequent mistakes and refusal to resolve issues will reduce the amount of patients.
- Try Medical Billing Assistance – If you are still spending too much time handling medical bills then an assistant can help prevent many issues from coming up and work with the patients directly if there are any problems. This is a solution if you are not familiar with medical codes and cannot find the errors on the bills.
- Use Medical Billing Software – If you do not have the help of a medical bill assistant, you can try to implement medical bill software that can help make it easier to review bills and readily access the information. It can save a lot of time and simply the process if you are struggling with getting the bills to be more accurate.
It can be as daunting of a task for healthcare providers to understand medical bills as it is for patients. Looking for assistance and review bills for errors can help save time on medical billing in the long run, making for a more profitable business.
Kenneth Gray is the CEO of A-Fordable Billing Solution, a medical billing company which helps health care providers, learn more about the work Kenneth does by visiting his website.
Marty Huggins
