X-Originating-IP: 209

From: Kevin Egly <kevin_egly@yahoo.com>
Sender: Practiceimprovement1@yahoogroups.com
Mailing-List: list Practiceimprovement1@yahoogroups.com; contact Practiceimprovement1-owner@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 11:06:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [Practiceimprovement1] Measuring billing success
Reply-To: Practiceimprovement1@yahoogroups.com

Scott:

Billing starts with the office visit, but actual administrative time15-20 minutes ech day to make sure cided correctly for the day. 15-30 minutes weekly to send claims to Thin a clearinghouse. Posting payments from individual checks about 2-3 min per patient check, less if i batch them for the end of the week, longer for medicare and bcbs. For instance I post ted $3600 this will take me over an hour to post 60 + claims. They have automatic posting from bcbs and i believe medicare. I may look into this shortly. Then as with all of you, I work through AR from each insurance company one company per week, BCBS week one, medicare week two, all other PPO week three, and medicaid week 4. Since I started this system the time taken has decreased each week. I think it will eventualy decrease to 2-4 hours per week.

Finally, I print one third of patient statements each week. Take minutes to print, an hour to review statment for accuracy, and about 40-60 minutes to stuff and mail 30-50 invoives.

Perhaps I spend 8-10 hours billing , posting, and collecting payments. 20-25% of my administrative time. But i do all the billing and collections for my wife as well. I am always looking for a way to streamline the process. I collect 80% of billed charges. Biggest writeoff is for BCBS because fee schedule set at 175% medicare for PPO's. BCBS is largest % with average write off 20%. I set Medicare at medicare reimbursement so I know what I will collect on medicare patients. Medicaid is paying peanuts. $6000 in charges over last year $756 collected. I am thinking about donating time to free clinic instead of caring for medicaid patients in my clinic.

Good luck

Any hints or tricks with billing keep me posted.

Kevin