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optometry
By CAHRYN BAUM 2,019 views
HEALTH

How Can You Increase Optometry Billing Collections In 2022?

Post Covid-19 has transformed the working of numerous medical practices. Optometry practices are no exception. 

The ongoing pandemic has not only changed the operations of health sectors but also significant changes occur in the behavior of the general population. 

Medical practices are still facing issues in billing collection. In 2022, The challenges are no different compared with previous years. Although in this article we will discuss the common errors in the billing process and how we can overcome them to get maximum collections. 

Tips to Increase Optometry Billing Collections 

Follow these steps to Increase your optometry billing collections

Collect Valid Information:

Valid information can solve many of your problems. It’s one of the first steps for a successful billing collection. When a patient enters for examination, your front desk staff is required to collect all the essential details of the patient.

The information includes: 

  • His Name 
  • Address
  • Phone number 
  • Insurance verification 

You can easily reduce the chances of errors when you have effectively done this process. 

Many practices used to suffer from claim denials, outstanding account recoverable, and claim rejection when they failed to collect the valid information of patients. 

Check Insurance Eligibility: 

Patients have medical insurances and vision plans to support their treatment expenses. 

But before the start of any treatment, you need to check the eligibility of the insurance. 

Many times a particular treatment is out of the coverage list of the insurance company. 

Patients are usually unaware of it. It’s your job to check the eligibility of the patient for the particular treatment. Check the coverage and inform them about it to avoid any future conflict. 

Use advanced beneficiary notice, It is a consent form, signed by the patient. It informs that patients are strictly liable to pay the bills for the services which are not covered by their respective insurance companies. 

Failure to get advanced beneficiary notice results in not being able to collect the amount from the patient for the services rendered. 

The manual way of checking eligibility is outdated now. It’s not only outdated but the chances of errors are very high by verifying it in a manual way. 

By 2022,  the growing concern of the Covid-19 new variant and the abundance of Telehealth claims push many Optometry practices to use insurance discovery tools.

Improve Coding Practice: 

Your Optometry practices need to improve coding to get maximum reimbursement. It’s one of the major reasons behind claim denials, low reimbursement, and claim rejection.

To get your claim approved you need to submit complete details of the treatment renders to the patient. These details are approved in the form of coding. 

Trained your staff members to lessen the errors in coding, Use CPT, HCPCS codes approved by American Medical Association also used correct modifiers for your optometry practices. 

Give them Multiple Payment Options: 

Giving multiple payment options is the best way to get maximum collections. These services are exclusively for the treatments that are exempted from insurance coverage. Rather than paying through one single method.

It’s better to open multiple options. Some will prefer to pay through credit or debit cards while others prefer to pay by using a mobile phone application, scanning QR codes, and using the online patient portal. 

Due to the ongoing pandemic, people are more inclined to get their work done at their comfort places. So giving them the opportunity to pay through their desired mode will eventually brighten your chances to get the maximum collection for your practice. 

Patient Follow-ups: 

Follow-up is necessary. While frequent follow-up is not advised every time, a timely reminder is a key to getting your collections on time from your patient. Send them a reminder through an E-mail, Call, or Sms that they have some amount to pay.

Account Receivable Follow-up: 

Account receivable follow is crucial for the smooth running of your optometry practices. The account receivable follow-up team is responsible to look at the denied claim to send a follow-up and get maximum reimbursement from the insurance companies.

Accounts receivable has several benefits like:

  • It provides financial stability to your optometry practice. 
  • Helps in getting late payments.
  • Minimize the outstanding account receivable.
  • Minimize Claim denial ratio

Track Aging Accounts:

Aging accounts are the leading cause of outstanding accounts receivable. Tracking your aging accounts gives you a clear picture of your remaining collection. By knowing the late payment history of the patient you can pinch your account receivable process accordingly.

Choose Best Software Systems: 

Choosing the best software ensures the smooth working of your billing process. From administrative to billing activity all these activities are controlled through an EHR/EMR software. As an optometry practice, you need to make sure that your software vendor makes a solution that integrates well with your other devices. An integrated system will smoothen your revenue collection.

Managing Denial Rates: 

Denial rates are very common in the billing process. If your optometry practice is frequently receiving denial rates then you need to take a look at your billing process. 

Coding errors, late claim submission, failing to verify the insurance eligibility leads to higher denial rates. Your billing team should keep tracking your denial rates frequently. 

A timely detection lowers the probability of losing revenues. 

Try Outsourcing: 

If your practice consistently receives high denial rates, your account receivable is exploding and your team lacks experience in coding and other billing activities. 

Then try to outsource your billing activity. A billing team works in tracking and lowering denial rates. Account receivable follow-ups, Timely claim submission, and consulting services for choosing the best EHR/EMR software solutions. 

The last two years were challenging for medical practices, But the new opportunities are thriving. Telehealtealth is flourishing with each passing day, opening the door for new opportunities for the health care system to better manage their collections as well as for the general population to gain futuristic health facilities. 

Cahryn Baum
Author
CAHRYN BAUM

Cathryn Baum is a Content writer who offers ghostwriting, copywriting and blogging services. She works closely with B2C and B2B businesses providing Healthcare and digital marketing content that gains social media atten