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How Increasing Business Control Can Help DME Medical Billing Services

by | July 6, 2022 | 7:23 am
Category : DME

Business control is critical to effective revenue management and business growth. However, it’s also essential for DME providers to have efficient medical billing processes for them to operate successfully. DME businesses can gain better control over medical billing services by efficiently managing patient data. Here are some ways in which DME businesses can improve their billing and revenue management:

Leveraging the Latest Technologies

Because DME medical billing is a time-consuming capability, it can quickly overwhelm the core workforce of the business. This can lead to employee burnout and subsequent attrition. By leveraging the latest technology, DME billing services providers can automate the actual medical billing process more efficiently. Relevant automation also helps facilitate tasks such as safe recording, storage, and retrieval of patient health records.

Action item: Many businesses make high-volume capital investments by acquiring, housing, and operating the latest technology, including hardware and software. However, DME businesses can leverage this technology better through partnerships with the help of DME billing services providers. Trained staff can manage and deploy the right technology. This can also help DME businesses avoid the costs associated with high turnover and salary expenses.

Addressing Claim Payment Delays on Time 

Strong revenue management is an effective way to achieve better business control. Aside from directly increasing the number of potential revenue streams, this also includes plugging revenue loss. In the case of DME businesses, efficient claim processing can help manage incoming revenue effectively.

A delayed claim payment can harm a business’s bottom line. Efficient DME billing management is about addressing delayed claims faster or denying claims outright. However, there are multiple challenges that can interfere with this process:

  • The DME business may not have adequate resources to carry out DME billing functions.
  • Busy executives could get swamped with business requirements, including overseeing routine business operations.
  • The current staff may not possess adequate understanding or knowledge of the process of handling delayed or denied claims.

Action item: Choosing professional assistance such as outsourced DME billing services can help ensure speedier collection through efficient claim denial or delay management.

Accuracy in Payment Posting

Payment posting is the process of recording payments received from the insurance company. The insurance company sends an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) along with the payment check. The EOB lists payment details such as the amount to be paid and the actual payment made. Once the DME business receives this information, it can then bill patients for any applicable copays or deductibles. Inaccuracy in payment posting can affect cash collection for the DME business in several different ways:

  • Incorrect reporting of the payment posting in accounting books. This can lead to a faulty understanding of the actual outstanding amount.
  • This gap in understanding can lead to time and effort loss on follow-up for already paid claims. In the process, any unpaid claims could stay invisible.
  • Incorrect reporting of payment can also lead to the incorrect patient account being billed. This can affect the goodwill and trust of the DME business.

Action item: Professional DME billing services providers who thoroughly understand the revenue cycle can help ensure accurate cash or payment posting. Thus, they can avoid unnecessary expenditures on pursuing paid claims.

Ensuring Efficient Claim Management

One of the best ways of ensuring business control for your DME business is to drive efficiencies and high productivity in claim management. An over-burdened DME team and day-to-day work pressures can interrupt the claim application filling process. Poor patient data recording practices can also contribute to incorrect claim applications. Additionally, delayed due diligence and research on critical documents (e.g. documents related to prior authorization) can lead to similar outcomes. These negligent practices can in turn negatively impact timely claim payment and revenue generation.

Action item: Entrust services such as DME medical billing or claim management to professionals. By outsourcing these services, you can help improve efficiency in various processes, timely revenue generation, and business control.

Focusing on Core Competencies to Drive Efficiencies

There are several challenges DME businesses routinely face that harm operational efficiency. Aside from better revenue management, efficiency in daily operations can increase business control. This can help profitability measures and sustain the DME better. But the added responsibility of medical billing can compromise the core competency of existing staff, thus causing the DME business to enter a cycle of poor operations and negatively impacting bottom lines. Some of the consequences of these inefficiencies include:

  • A small pool of trained workers
  • Burnout of this small team due to interruptions from regular work
  • Attention-intensive demands of claim management.
  • High attrition
  • The burden of a high salary
  • Benefits expenses that fall on the DME business and that can cause revenue losses.
  • The management team is prevented from better managing profitability.

Action item: Choose professional DME billing services that can take away the burden of managing an internal team. Assign a dedicated and trained team for critical tasks such as document review. This helps the DME business ensure proper documentation and, eventually, better claim management.

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