Are your patients struggling to pay their bills? In recent articles published on the topic, medical practices are reporting that upwards of forty percent of their patients are negotiating payment plans. That calls for tighter collection policies and reliable revenue cycle management tools. Here are some tips: Collect upfront. As patient copays and deductibles become more significant, be sure to collect patient-due amounts before they leave the office. If your office staff is struggling to find time to determine a patient’s financial responsibility before or during a visit, an eligibility solution can solve your problem. Train your staff to verify eligibility immediately using a real-time, web-based solution.If and when you need to bill patients, make it easy for them to pay their bills online. Submit clean claims. The stringent claims processing rules and new coding procedures introduced by private and public payers can make it harder for office staff to submit clean claims. Coding Tools help your staff quickly process and submit claims and avoid denials. Coding Tools provide numerous levels of edits and validations based on CCI and ICD standards to eliminate coding errors that delay payment to you. Appeal denials. We all make mistakes — including payers. Unless you appeal denied claims, you could be leaving money on the table. A reliable claims management solution can help you effortlessly capture missing revenues. Look for these features in your solution: An Extensive System of Edits ensures clean claims are delivered to payers the first time Claims Tracking eliminates lost claims; you’ll receive a report that indicates when your claims are received, delivered and accepted by payers Rejection Analysis categorizes rejected claims by reason — in plain English — and lets you research, edit and resubmit claims quickly Real-Time Submission immediately returns claims that the system is unable to validate during initial edits Need more information? Contact Jim Boehm at Harmony Healthcare IT at 574-968-5058.