27 Jun Managing Your Accounts Receivable Is the Key Your Practice’s Profitability
View outstanding claims as potential profits to support your practice—and go after them.
To maintain a healthy bottom line, your dental practice must constantly monitor the status of outstanding claims. This is known as claim statusing (checking on the progress of a claim).
The problem is, your staff members might be overburdened with administrative tasks, and so they’re not able to pursue claims in a timely manner.
The even bigger problem is, when claims aren’t followed up on, they become aging Accounts Receivable, which translate into substantial revenue loss for your practice. And here’s a fact: claims more than 30 days old have significantly less chance of getting paid.
There’s Buried Treasure in Unpaid Claims
Claim statusing involves more than identifying an outstanding claim. It requires being a forensic investigator of dental billing, because the only profitable solution is first to figure out what you must do after you identify an outstanding claim, and then taking those steps.
Then come the questions:
- Has the insurance company declined to pay the claim?
- Has the patient used all their allotted coverage for a service? (If so, that will shift the payment responsibility to them.)
- Has the patient reached their maximum reimbursement?
- Have they left the plan?
If there’s no way forward to payment, it’s just as important to establish close-out as it is to identify the outstanding claim in the first place. If your practice is forced to deal with monies that are expected, but not coming in, it will reduce the accuracy of your practice’s perceived financial status, and it will hurt your ability to make informed financial decisions.
You Need Both Advanced Technology and Billing Experts
We’re National Experts in Dental Billing
A Flexible Service Model
Our Accounts Receivable Follow-up Capabilities
In addition to claim statusing, we offer a full range of comprehensive services that follow up on your accounts receivable. We can assume the administrative burden of tracking unpaid insurance claims, attaching correct documents for timely resubmissions, and then updating notations in your practice management system.