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Top 10 Tips That Can Help You Improve Your Chiropractic Billing Practices in 2022

Top 10 Tips That Can Help You Improve Your Chiropractic Billing Practices in 2022

When it comes to chiropractic billing, efficiency is the name of the game. To help you improve your billing process, so you can focus on what matters most, here are our top 10 tips that can help you out.

Doctors working on insurance billing
  1. Enter once.  Check twice.  No matter the technology, nothing works better than a double-check system. You will save hours of time in your billing department by avoiding data entry errors.  Depending on the size and set-up of your practice, data entry should ideally be checked at the end of each shift, or at least at the end of each business day.
  2. Complete your treatment notes.  Just like you want your patients to follow through on care, your billing department really wishes you would follow through on treatment notes. Ideally, your treatment note should be finished as part of your time scheduled with each patient. A secondary goal is 24 hours. If for a reason that will never make sense to a biller you choose not to complete your notes within 24 hours you should complete them no later than the next date of claims billing.
  3. Bill your claims on a regularly scheduled basis. Claims should be billed at least once per week, on a scheduled basis. Knowing what day/s your claims billing will be done allows for procedures to be built around double-check systems & treatment note completion in conjunction with when the claims will be billed. Some will argue that claims should be billed daily. Unless the provider enters charges and submits each individual charge at the time of treatment, I would argue otherwise. Redundant processes that do not garner a significant change in result take time away from something else that could. Billing every day will not collect you more money in an average month than billing weekly.  However, it will take you more time – time you could have spent doing something else that would actually increase your collections.
  4. Work with a reputable clearinghouse.  As technology continues to advance, your clearinghouse has become a vital part of your billing process. More and more rejections/denials no longer print to a paper EOB, but happen electronically at the clearinghouse level.  Be sure to work with a reputable clearinghouse, take advantage of their training & support, and set aside dedicated time to review and follow up on your rejections & errors weekly.
  5. Sign up for EFT/ACH payments when possible.  Many insurance carriers require you to sign up for direct deposit (EFT/ACH).  The industry is going to continue to move in this direction until it’s a requirement for all companies. Not only are you delaying the inevitable, but you are also creating roadblocks for your billing department. EFT/ACH pays faster, is easier to post, and is easier to track & follow up on. Side note: for those of you who are excited about the virtual pay credit card payments from insurance carriers, don’t be. They may seem like a workaround but as with all credit card processing, there are fees attached. In many cases, not only are you charged a % processing fee but you are also charged a flat fee for choosing this option vs. choosing EFT/ACH.
  6. Know your websites.  I would estimate that at least 70% of insurance companies have some form of a website/provider portal for you to set up & access. In most cases, websites will give you access to eligibility, benefits & claims information. Though in the end a website can not always replace having to pick up the phone, a website is faster than a phone call so it should be utilized as often as possible.
  7. Keep a Flip chart.  A flip chart is a collection of important information that you can ‘flip’ through and reference in your billing department. It should list your clinic demographics, provider names, Tax ID, group & individual NPIs, networks you are in-network for, major networks you are out-of-network for, which insurances pay via direct deposit, and which websites you have access to, etc.  It’s a mini-manual on the most important information to have on hand in your billing department.
  8. Designate time. Billing & claims follow-up is not something that can be done successfully between patients and/or at the front desk while answering phones. Follow-up requires time; time to research and time to make phone calls.  Not just any kind of time, but focused uninterrupted time. Just like billing your claims, your claims follow-up time should be a scheduled recurring block(s) of uninterrupted time every week.
  9. Get into the groove.  This one piggybacks on #8.  It’s common knowledge that when scheduling patients most practices have uptime and downtime. Existing patients are scheduled during certain blocks of time, exams during certain blocks of time, and paperwork during downtime. Why? Because you get into a groove – a rhythm that makes you more productive and focused on your patient care during the times when you should be. This concept works exactly the same in billing. Designating specific blocks of time for specific tasks allows you to get into a rhythm, which makes you more productive. You will accomplish more in 4-hours of focus time than you will in 2 days of ‘fitting it in between patients’.
  10. Know your Numbers.  Micro-managing is not an effective tool for managing your billing department. Neither is ignorance. Instead, you should determine Key Point Indicators (KPIs) that you track on a weekly and/or monthly basis to give you averages over time. Doing this consistently will naturally help point to areas that need improvements AND areas that should be celebrated. For example, if one of your KPI’s is the payer payment ratio (write-offs not included), you would track your services, and payer payments each month to determine your ratio.  If this number is lower than you expect, you know to raise it, you have to make changes that directly affect an insurance company paying you more (ie: unnecessary write-offs like no authorization, evaluating fee schedules, treatment note denials, etc.).

 

Now that you know what our top 10 tips in 2022 are, which one of these will you be applying in your practice?

It is also important to note if you’re trying to improve efficiency in your chiropractic billing and ensure you get paid on time, it’s a good idea to have a specialist who can make sure that billing is done correctly.

MTB offers many great resources to help you improve your chiropractic billing practices. Visit our complete billing management service page to find out more about our dedicated team and our seamless billing management process.

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Outsourcing Your Chiropractic Billing

Outsourcing Your Chiropractic Billing

Why outsourcing your chiropractic billing services is a positive step for new or established chiropractors.

When a chiropractor has made the decision to open their own clinic it is rarely because they are excited about insurance billing, collections, or administrative tasks. Chiropractors went to school with the main focus on medical and chiropractic classes, you know, hands-on helping people. Their career goals rarely involve business management, collections, or insurance claims.

Fast forward to opening your own clinic. Surely you’ll be able to find great staff who can handle your billings, right? Between staffing shortages, ever-changing rules and policies, and rapidly changing technology it can be expensive and nerve-wracking. Suddenly your staff person needs additional education, you need to update your software, and by the way, the billing person is out on vacation for the next two weeks.

Whether you are an established chiropractic firm, or you are in the beginning stages of opening your own clinic, consider the ease and many benefits of outsourcing your billing.

Here are a few of the many reasons you should outsource your chiropractic billing:

  1. Save time.  Technology, insurance, and industry continue to rapidly change.  Save the time and cost of training, tracking, and managing a billing person/department by outsourcing to an experienced, specialized company.
  2. Reduce Stress. The number one distraction in a chiropractic office is collections. Outsourcing allows you to build a peer-to-peer business relationship with billing experts using specific key performance indicators (KPI’s) that allow you to focus on your patients instead.
  3. Reduce errors.  With the never-ending changes in medical billing regulations, it can be difficult to stay on top of current rules. Outsourcing means you don’t have to worry about costly billing errors and the time and stress to correct those errors.
  4. Stability.  No more training (if you can even find a potential employee), turn-over, or trying to find time for follow-up.  Outsourcing is a long-term resolution for all of these challenges.
  5. Improved Returns.  On average, because of the experience, knowledge, and stability, the right billing company often will collect more than you or your staff.
  6. Support.  Most billing companies have a vast experience in the industry that allows them to provide additional support to you as a practitioner and as a business owner.
  7. Results.  Bottom line, whether it’s because you are collecting more, less stressed, saving time, understanding your business better, tracking stats, and on and on – outsourcing to the right company will help get the results you need in your business.
  8. Cost-Effective.  Streamlining your procedures, removing your distractions, stabilizing your collections, and reducing office overhead all factor into the cost & value of your billing department.  In a true side-by-side comparison, not only does outsourcing not cost you more, many times it costs you less.

The choice to use outsourced chiropractic, as you can see, will drastically change how you and your staff spend your time, and in turn, allow you to focus on your patients and get you the money you deserve.

While taking the step to outsource your billing can feel overwhelming, Money Tree Billing are experts at what they do and can help you and/or your clinic make the transition relatively seamless.

Money Tree Billing’s goal is to free you from billing hassles so you can focus on what really matters, patient health, patient education, and practice growth. Contact one of our dedicated insurance billing experts today and start empowering your team, and saving time and money!

Ready to reduce your stress and increase your revenue? Visit Money Tree Billing today and set up your phone meeting to find out how we can help you. 

Outsourcing Your Chiropractic Billing

Why outsourcing your chiropractic billing services is a positive step for new or established chiropractors.

When a chiropractor has made the decision to open their own clinic it is rarely because they are excited about insurance billing, collections, or administrative tasks. Chiropractors went to school with the main focus on medical and chiropractic classes, you know, hands-on helping people. Their career goals rarely involve business management, collections, or insurance claims.

Fast forward to opening your own clinic. Surely you’ll be able to find great staff who can handle your billings, right? Between staffing shortages, ever-changing rules and policies, and rapidly changing technology it can be expensive and nerve-wracking. Suddenly your staff person needs additional education, you need to update your software, and by the way, the billing person is out on vacation for the next two weeks.

Whether you are an established chiropractic firm, or you are in the beginning stages of opening your own clinic, consider the ease and many benefits of outsourcing your billing.

Here are a few of the many reasons you should outsource your chiropractic billing:

  1. Save time.  Technology, insurance, and industry continue to rapidly change.  Save the time and cost of training, tracking, and managing a billing person/department by outsourcing to an experienced, specialized company.
  2. Reduce Stress. The number one distraction in a chiropractic office is collections.  Outsourcing allows you to build a peer-to-peer business relationship with billing experts using specific key performance indicators (KPI’s) that allow you to focus on your patients instead.
  3. Reduce errors.  With the never-ending changes in medical billing regulations, it can be difficult to stay on top of current rules. Outsourcing means you don’t have to worry about costly billing errors and the time and stress to correct those errors.
  4. Stability.  No more training (if you can even find a potential employee), turn-over, or trying to find time for follow-up.  Outsourcing is a long-term resolution for all of these challenges.
  5. Improved Returns.  On average, because of the experience, knowledge, and stability, the right billing company often will collect more than you or your staff.
  6. Support.  Most billing companies have a vast experience in the industry that allows them to provide additional support to you as a practitioner and as a business owner.
  7. Results.  Bottom line, whether it’s because you are collecting more, less stressed, saving time, understanding your business better, tracking stats, and on and on – outsourcing to the right company will help get the results you need in your business.
  8. Cost Effective.  Streamlining your procedures, removing your distractions, stabilizing your collections, and reducing office overhead all factor into the cost & value of your billing department.  In a true side-by-side comparison, not only does outsourcing not cost you more, many times it costs you less.

The choice to use outsourced chiropractic, as you can see, will drastically change how you and your staff spend your time, and in turn, allow you to focus on your patients and get you the money you deserve. While taking the step to outsource your billing can feel overwhelming, Money Tree Billing are experts at what they do and can help you and/or your clinic make the transition relatively seamless.

Money Tree Billing’s goal is to free you from billing hassles so you can focus on what really matters, patient health, patient education, and practice growth. Contact one of our dedicated insurance billing experts and start empowering your team and saving time and money!

Ready to reduce your stress and increase your revenue? Visit Money Tree Billing today and set up your phone meeting to find out how we can help you. 

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