WORK YOUR AGING CLAIMS REGULARLY
Welcome to Tuesday Tips with MODPractice!
HOW OFTEN ARE YOU WORKING YOUR AGING REPORT?
We recommend working on your aging report at least once per week. It’s easy to neglect the insurance aging report or outstanding claims report (depending on your practice management software) but it’s a crucial part of your A/R.
How you work your aging report and how often you need to work that report can vary depending on the status of your aging claims. To calculate the amount of time to dedicate to this, estimate that if you dedicate a full day to work aging claims, you’ll be able to work about 30-40 depending on how many claims can be worked in the insurance portal, how many claims you’ll need to call on, and how many claims need appeal letters generated. So, let’s say you have 350 claims outstanding over 30 days. Assuming an average of 35 claims worked/day, you would need to dedicate 10 days to work all claims on the report. In this instance, you’d need about 2.25 days/week dedicated to aging to work every claim.
Ultimately, your goal is to PREVENT aging by thorough eligibility and benefit verification, ensuring accurate claims are submitted the first time, and ensuring all supporting documentation required is attached to the claim the first time. Insurance companies LOVE to be difficult but your aging should be minimal if you’re completing the steps above.
So what’s the most efficient way to power through those aging claims?
- If you have a significant number of claims outstanding, sort them by date and work the oldest claims first in an effort to prevent timely filing rejections. Our preferred clearinghouse is Vyne due to their feature that allows you to instantly create a timely filing letter with the date the claim and attachments were received by the insurance company.
- Sort claims by insurance company. If you have to call Delta Dental, you’re going to be on hold for an hour so you don’t want to make separate phone calls on individual claims. You definitely want to make sure you have multiple claims ready to ask the rep about.
ALWAYS MAKE A STATUS NOTE IN YOUR PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM! This crucial step is one that is frequently missed. If you don’t make a note, chances are you won’t remember what you did on that claim if you have to look at it again and to everyone else in the office, it doesn’t look like it was worked without a note. We suggest documenting the following:
- CLAIM AMOUNT: $
- CLAIM #:
- CLAIM STATUS/ALL DETAILS ON WHAT THE STATUS/HOLD UP IS:
- ACTION TAKEN:
- NAME OF REP/CALL REF #:
- YOUR NAME OR INITIALS
Once you’ve resolved the issues with the bulk of your aging claims, if you keep working that report weekly and ensuring all denials are quickly addressed, your A/R will be in great shape!
Interested in learning more about Revenue Cycle Management for your practice? Contact us today!