Revenue cycle management helps physical therapists to manage clinical and administrative functions within their revenue cycle. The revenue cycle begins when a patient contacts a physical therapist to book an appointment and ends after the final payment for the consultation and treatment. With the help of physical therapy billing services, you can maximize patient service revenue and increase claim reimbursement.
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Here are five revenue cycle management services and how they can affect physical therapy billing processes:
1. Eligibility Verification
When a patient books a consultation, the physical therapy staff collects information to create a patient account. This process includes collecting the patient’s insurance information and confirming their eligibility. Revenue cycle management and physical therapy billing services help confirm eligible insurance plans and verify that the patient’s information is correct. This can help prevent delays in the physical therapy practice’s reimbursement process.
2. Claims Submissions
Revenue cycle management services focus on completing front-end tasks accurately for claims to get paid after the first submission. These tasks include proper coding, thorough insurance verification, and gathering accurate patient details. Due to incomplete forms or clerical errors, insurance claims can be denied after submission. These errors might include an incorrect patient subscriber number, patient insurance ineligibility, or missing patient details. When utilizing professional billing services, most of these claim denials can be prevented by confirming that the claims are accurate before submission. Accurate claims help avoid revenue problems, including claims abandonment, underpayment, and denials.
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3. Payment Collections
Upon approval of a patient’s claim, the insurance company reimburses the physical therapy practice for the eligible services. The provider can reach out and collect payment from the patient if there is a balance following the insurance payor’s reimbursement. Revenue cycle management services speed up the billing processes by simplifying claims processing. These services focus on tasks like insurance eligibility verification, which can help patients know from the beginning what expenses they are responsible for paying. Such information may help prevent delays in collecting patient payments.
4. Administrative Burden
When patients book appointments, the administrative staff is responsible for scheduling, updating patient information, and verifying their insurance. Collecting and verifying this information can contribute to accurate data input on claims submissions. Preventing claims denials can decrease the administrative burden. Your staff can minimize the time spent on appealing denied claims, allowing them to focus more on the patient experience. With the assistance of revenue cycle management services, front-end tests get streamlined for your administrative staff to work more efficiently. Submitting claims, appointing schedules, processing medical bills, and completing intake forms are streamlined for a satisfactory experience.
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5. Revenue
The cost of a dedicated billing department can add up fast with training, benefits, and pay. Cutting the process involved with employee training and onboarding may save money on training resources. Revenue cycle management services stay updated on the latest billing changes and training to help streamline your practice. This leaves less room for errors or miscommunications with billing. Physical therapy practice owners can outsource their billing needs to revenue cycle management services to potentially maximize their return on investment (ROI) over time. The billing process is ongoing, and even when key employees take a vacation or get sick, your billing service professionals can continue to monitor your physical therapy practice’s finances. This lets you focus more on offering quality patient care, leaving the billing process to the experts.
Get Help From Physical Therapy Billing Services
Physical therapy billing services are designed to simplify and optimize your revenue cycle management process. You can work with professional billing services to help with claim submissions, account follow-up, and denial management, lessening your practice’s administrative burden. Choose a billing service that specializes in physical therapy billing, submits timely claims, and shares results for performance improvement.
