Physicians works really hard and concentrate on giving best possible care to patients. All this hard work only pays if their medical billing team (in‐house or outsourced) is also working efficiently and coherently. Usually providers have a very busy schedule and don’t have time to dig deep into
Audit and Consulting Services
Purpose:
Physicians work hard and concentrate on giving the best possible care to patients. All this hard work only pays if their medical billing team (in‐house or outsourced) is also working efficiently and coherently. Usually, providers have a very busy schedule and don’t have time to dig deep into the billing portion of their practice and get insights. But if you don’t keep a close watch on your billing practices, you will eventually have to face dire consequences.
The purpose of audit is to present a bird’s eye view to the physician, as to where his/her practice stands as far as revenue cycle management is concerned. The audit process entails a thorough analysis of the practice to identify the gaps in the overall billing process, find problematic areas, deficiencies in charge pathways, issues in accounts receivable, etc.
Benefits:
Usually, physicians know what is coming to their bank but they do not know what they are missing. They only get AR reports but do not get a chance to know about the exact issues their practice is facing. An audit can help them get upfront to all the existing issues, the recommendations can enhance the performance level and physician can exactly know about their practice.
Procedure:
Once we sign in for an audit, we follow the below procedure:
Run Reports: Accounts receivable, scheduler, patient balances, and insurance payment reports are run to get an overall perspective of the practice.
Compile Sample Data: After running all the reports we extract data for a certain period, certain claims & certain accounts. This data is then thoroughly analyzed to identify issues.
Follow Up on Claims: Once sample data is compiled we contact insurance and verify the status of every pending claim. All findings are properly noted against each claim with suggestions for corrective action.
Payer Enrollment Status The Provider’s participation/enrollment status verification is extremely important as it is the base on which the provider is reimbursed. We check and verify if the provider is properly enrolled with all the payers.
Paid Claims Fee Schedule Check: Usually charges for fee schedules are added at the time of setting up the practice management software. Incorrect setup may result in claims being under or overpaid. If they are under then it is a loss for the physician and in case claims are overpaid; the physician’s practice can come under a CMS audit which may take up to 2 years to complete and a hold on payments during this while.
Practice Management Software Configuration: PM software must be configured and tuned for maximum efficiency. We check and verify that software is set up correctly, optimized, and utilized for efficient billing practices.
Analysis Summary:
Once all the above-mentioned audit procedures are complete, we prepare an analysis summary that contains audit highlights, a list of issues and their effect on the practice e.g. how many claims were not on file, how many lost filing limit, what percentage is paid, denied or has resulted as a loss, etc. We also suggest corrective measures for each identified problem. The summary contains facts, figures, and charts representing the practice condition.
Detailed Report:
The detailed report contains the audit trail of the sample data. All the work done on every claim, the response from insurance representatives, findings, and issues with claims.
