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Medical Billing Errors: Is Incorrect Patient Information Costing Your Practice Revenue?

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Some time ago, I shared a blog about 5 Common Medical Billing Mistakes That Are Costing You . It became one of our most-read posts and that tells me something. Practice owners know billing mistakes are expensive but they want to understand where they're happening and why they keep happening. So, over the next few weeks, we're going to take a closer look at each of those five mistakes, starting with one that seems incredibly simple: Incorrect or incomplete patient information. It may sound like a small administrative error. But small errors at the beginning of the revenue cycle can create much bigger problems at the end. It Starts With One Small Detail A misspelled name. An incorrect date of birth. An old insurance card. A changed policy number. A new employer. A patient whose coverage terminated last month. Any one of these can create problems when the claim reaches the insurance company. And suddenly, your team is spending additional time correcting information, resubmitting c...
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Medical Practice Accounts Receivable: How $23,000 in Insurance A/R Became $134,000

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  Today, I want to share a real case study that perfectly illustrates why looking at an aging report is only the beginning. A client and owner of a medical practice believed there was approximately $23,000 in outstanding insurance A/R. That was the number they understood to be sitting in the revenue cycle. But after reviewing the accounts and digging into the underlying activity, I found something very different. Approximately $134,000 in outstanding insurance balances. That meant there was roughly $111,000 more sitting in the revenue cycle than ownership realized. At first glance, that sounds like great news. But this is where the story gets important. Finding a balance does not automatically make it collectible revenue. So the real question wasn't: "How much A/R is there?" It was: "What does that $134,000 actually represent?" And once we broke it down, the answer became much clearer. What Was Actually Behind the $134,000? Approximately $27,800 had already been...
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Outsourcing Medical Billing: When Does It Make Sense for Your Medical Practice?

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Over the past two weeks, we've been talking about something many medical practices experience but don't always recognize right away. It starts with an overwhelmed team. Everyone is working hard, but important tasks are still falling behind. Then comes the realization: Maybe this isn't a productivity problem. Maybe it's a capacity problem. Last week, we took that one step further and asked: Does everything we're currently doing in-house really need to stay in-house? Which brings us to the natural next question: When does outsourcing actually make sense? Outsourcing Doesn't Mean Replacing a Good Team Let's start here, because this may be one of the biggest misconceptions about outsourcing. The goal doesn't have to be replacing employees. Sometimes it's exactly the opposite. Outside support can be a way to protect the team you already have. If talented employees are spending their days chasing aging claims, researching denials, managing credentialing de...
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Medical Practice Management: Is Doing Everything In-House Costing You Time and Revenue...and Profit?

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  Does Everything in Your Medical Practice Really Need to Be Done In-House? Last week, we talked about something I think deserves more attention in medical practices: Sometimes your staff isn't the problem. You can have a great team. They can be hardworking, experienced, and completely committed to your practice and still be falling behind. Why? Because there comes a point when there simply aren't enough hours in the day. Claims need attention. Denials need follow-up. Aging A/R needs to be worked. Payments need to be posted. Credentialing deadlines don't disappear. Patients have billing questions. Reports need to be reviewed. Meanwhile, your team still has an actual medical practice to run. So if you've recognized that your practice has a capacity problem , the next question becomes: What do you do about it? "Maybe We Just Need Another Employee" That's often the first thought. And sometimes, hiring another employee absolutely is the right decision. But bef...
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Medical Practice Management: Is Staff Overload Costing Your Practice Time and Profit?

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Let me ask you something. How many times today has someone on your team had to stop what they were doing to fix something? Maybe they had to track down missing insurance information. Correct a claim. Figure out why a payment wasn't posted correctly. Research a denial. Follow up on an aging account. Or answer a question that seems to come up over and over again. None of those things seem particularly alarming on their own. They're just part of running a medical practice, right? But what happens when you multiply those little interruptions across several employees, five days a week, 52 weeks a year? Suddenly, "just part of the day" can become a very expensive way to run a practice. And sometimes the bigger problem isn't that your team isn't working efficiently. It's that you're asking an already-busy team to handle more than they realistically have time to manage. The Cost You Don't See on a Financial Statement When we talk about improving medical pr...
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