Here's how to leverage auto posting in medical billing
Patient deductibles in the US have increased 150% between 2009 and 2018. While law makers have attempted to reduce health consumers’ burdens, their efforts have been ineffective. So, medical practices must engage with more complex accounting for patient balances. This complexity has forced billers to spend more time on each line-item of payments.
Payment posting is a critical part of revenue cycle management (RCM). This process is uniquely situated to catch any errors before sending a bill or statement to the Patient. However, rising patient responsibility is making payment posting increasingly time-consuming. To combat this time sink, practices are turning to auto posting.
Here’s how to leverage auto-posting in medical billing
What Auto Posting Offers
Auto-posting is the use of medical software to automatically post payments. This system avoids the burden of copying an insurer’s explanation of benefits (EOB) manually. Adopting auto-posting frees practices to spend more time focusing on patient well-being.
Some practices dislike sacrificing the flexibility of constant human oversight. However, auto-posting has advantages. Machine precision almost eliminates typos and mathematical errors. It can also post a payment quicker than the fastest staff member. A well-organized automatic system will display an income list, making finances clearer.
Train Specialized Billing Staff
Small practices frequently require their workers to perform duties outside of their expertise. Sometimes, even physicians must bill for services they deliver. This system is inefficient since these staff are slower and more prone to mistakes than full-time billers.
Automatic systems save enough time to circumvent this problem. Hire a small team whose primary task is to manage your practice’s revenue cycle and automate systems. These staff members will become far more efficient at this job than previous workers. Also, physicians who doubled as billers earlier will have more time to care for patients.
Incorporate Electronic Remittance Advice
Electronic remittance advice (ERA) is an electronic document that details an insurance payer’s coverage. Insurers will send healthcare Providers either a hard copy physical EOB or an (electronic) ERA. Physical EOBs require more work and time than their digital alternative. Automatic systems provide the most value if a significant chunk of your insurers are set-up for ERAs.
Many systems allow syncing payment posting with third-party accounting software. This synchronization gives practices a single platform to monitor income without requiring manual inputs. The more you use ERAs, the more services will automatically plug into this streamlined system.
Analyze for Improvements
The payment posting process is the best time to identify and correct underpayments. This step is where billing staff will have most of the necessary payment information. Unfortunately, sometimes automatic systems may fail to take full advantage of this crucial time. Experienced billers often recognize nuances that software fails to register.
To combat this problem, periodically review your system and the information that passes through it. Assign this task to a specific unit familiar with the ins and outs of payment posting errors. Record the problems you find and adjust your system accordingly.
Get the Best of Both Worlds
Practices may fear that their consistent use of automatic systems will miss out on potential gains and other errors. At the same time, it’s difficult to sacrifice the precision, speed, and laboralleviation that automation can offer.
To get the best of both worlds, hire a billing and coding service. Plutus Health has an expert team that excelsat quickly and accurately billing and posting payments. Yet we still maintain a high level of perception in identifying potential revenue sources. Contact our team today to learn how we'll improve your practice’s RCM.
Key Takeaways
1. Auto-posting offers a high-speed, accurate payment posting system.
2. Train specialized staff to use automatic systems.
3. Use ERAs to maintain a paper-free workflow and history.
4. Periodically analyze your systems to ensure a streamlined revenue cycle.
5. Hire a professional billing service to gain the best of both automatic and manual posting.
