Have you ever experienced a rejected claim with your patient’s insurance company? In this situation, it can be frustrating to deal with the AR department, especially when patients feel like their time is wasted by waiting for their claims to be processed. There are a lot of factors that affect AR accuracy, and most people don’t know how to fix them. In this guide, we’ll go over these factors and how you can improve them!
6 Strategies That Work For Your Account Receivables Recovery
You might have heard that “accounts receivable” is like an iceberg. That’s because most of your company’s revenue is likely hidden beneath the surface, waiting to be collected. But how do you find it? And how do you get it? Well, if you want to improve your collection process and make sure that all of your customers pay up on time, here are six strategies that work for your account receivables recovery:
Find the Root cause of Your AR Issues.
Awareness of the issue is essential because it can lead to financial losses if left unchecked. You will be losing money every time an invoice is unpaid at the end of the month as your payment date gets pushed back, which can lead to late fees and penalties on future invoices! Once you’ve determined that your AR issues are related to a specific account, it’s time to fix your issue’s root. Go through your customer records and look for any suspicious activity (i.e., someone buying products using multiple credit cards). Insurance payments might be significantly slowed if claims are denied. Call the insurance company immediately to find the reason when a denial occurs. Check for any documentation or coding mistakes that may have had an impact. Insurance companies are eager to postpone payment for as long as possible. You can reduce collection barriers by keeping them on track.
Give your AR team an audit
Auditing your AR recovery is a crucial step in ensuring that it’s accurate. Here are some things to audit:
The accuracy of your data. Your auditing policies and procedures include who is responsible for this step and how often you should do it. You’ll want to ensure that all of these items are up-to-date and accurate before going live with an AR recovery system. You can also use this audit to review other processes related to your AR recovery solution (e.g., how long does someone have access before changing their password?). This can help ensure that everything is running smoothly—and even better! It will give you an idea of whether there are any areas where improvements could be made or the process streamlined so that everyone has an easier time getting work done.
Improve the accuracy of your billing
The foundation of your account receivables recovery is accurate billing. Your ability to accurately bill patients is crucial in ensuring that you can recover your ARs successfully. If you have a problem with inaccurate billing, recovering any of the funds paid out on these claims will be challenging.
The following are some things that could impact your accuracy:
Denials – If a patient denies coverage or appeals a claim, there’s no way for an insurance company to prove otherwise and make sure they get paid back properly.
Appeals – If patients appeal after receiving treatment from providers, it becomes even more complicated. The third-party provider only has access to written statements from providers’ offices, which may contain only some relevant information needed when making decisions about payment disputes between companies involved in healthcare exchanges across state lines.
Prioritize accounts for quicker collections
The first step to getting your AR recovery more accurate is prioritizing accounts for quicker collections. Prioritize accounts that have been outstanding for more than 60 days. This ensures that the insurance company has received no payment and will probably deny your claim if you don’t make a payment soon. It also means they have time to pursue legal action against you in court if they file suit against you (usually when an insurance company doesn’t receive payment).
Prioritize accounts with higher balances- If there are high-balanced accounts with many missed payments, those should be prioritized over lower-balanced ones when determining which ones should be paid first — the higher the balance, the faster it will be paid out by the insurance company.
Prioritize accounts denied by both patient and insurance company- If both parties have denied coverage, there’s no chance these claims will ever be paid out; however, if only one party denies coverage without giving reasons, it might still be possible for those claims.
Develop policies and procedures related to AR management.
Define the scope of work for your team, including any limitations on the size or type of data that can be recovered. Define roles and responsibilities for each team member, including who should be responsible for which tasks, such as planning/scheduling meetings or providing status updates on progress toward completion of a recovery project. Establish clearly defined escalation procedures (e.g., how do you escalate issues when they arise?) so that everyone knows what actions need to be taken when things go wrong—and make sure everyone understands their role in this process too!
Perform routine analysis of your claim denials
Performing routine analysis of your claim denials is crucial to ensuring that you’re recovering losses. You need to educate yourself on the reason for the denial and determine what steps need to be taken for the claim to be successful. You can also use this information as an opportunity for improvement—if a customer was denied due to an invalid reason, maybe there’s something about their biller or policy causing problems with other customers’ payments. By examining each denial closely and understanding why they occurred, it becomes easier for you to identify potential issues in your billing process so that they don’t happen again.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to improve your account receivables. But the most important thing is remembering that it’s not only about the numbers — it’s also about providing patients with a positive experience and helping them get their bills paid efficiently. This means having clear policies and procedures in place so employees know what they should be doing and training all levels of staff on how to handle AR issues effectively.
