Posts by RMK HOLDINGS INC.
How to Protect Your Medical Facility from Spam Emails
When it comes to email correspondence, there’s nothing more annoying than spam. You log into your email to read messages from patients and business associates, but get assaulted with tens of spam mails that throw a wrench in your workflow. However, that’s not the worst that can happen. As a medical facility, spam emails…
Read MoreHow to Handle Medical Write-Offs
How much unpaid medical debt does your medical practice or ambulance business have? What percent is likely to be categorized under medical write-offs? How are you reducing this? Recent studies suggest over 80% of independent practices are worried about whether their business would remain financially viable after the pandemic. Are you one of them?…
Read MoreHow to Find Social Services for Your Patients
REPUBLISHED WITH CHANGES (ORIGINAL SOURCE: NGS Daily News JANUARY 27, 2021) National Government Services (NGS) continues to partner with Aunt Bertha to provide medical providers with easy access to social service programs in their area through the NGS web-based systems. From NGSConnex.com and NGSMedicare.com, healthcare professionals can access the NGS-specific Aunt Bertha social services site…
Read MoreSteps to Curb Unexpected Medical Bills
REPUBLISHED WITH CHANGES (ORIGINAL SOURCE: By Julie Appleby Kaiser Health News DECEMBER 22, 2020) Most Americans tell pollsters they’re worried about being able to afford an unexpected medical bill. Late Monday, Congress passed a bill to allay some of those fears. The measure is included in a nearly 5,600-page package providing coronavirus economic relief and government…
Read MoreHow to Improve Patient Collections Impacted by COVID-19
A healthcare billing compliance program helps prevent costly mistakes. Learn how.
Read MoreHow to Jump-Start a Billing Compliance Program
A healthcare billing compliance program helps prevent costly mistakes. Learn how.
Read MorePatient Billing Healthcare Advocate
You may not be aware your patients may continue to be frustrated by an unresolved billing claim – only after they have been turned over to a bad debt collection agency.
Read MoreTips to Sleep in Uneasy Times
As a healthcare professional, how long do you sleep since the COVID-19 pandemic started? Can you even remember the last time you slept well? Check out these tips to help you sleep better in this uneasy time.
Read MoreIntegrity & Trust in Healthcare
Integrity and trust in healthcare are fundamental principles that promote the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals. Learn more about how this can apply to your healthcare facility.
Read MorePaying for Unexpected COVID-19 Medical Bills
According to a recent study by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, a patient could incur more than $20,000 of medical bills for complications related to COVID-19 with an even steeper cost when ventilator support is required. This means potentially high cost sharing can be expected in terms of deductibles and out of network balances. The…
Read MoreFive Ways: Prevent Bad Debt Collections & Patient Balances
Moving accounts to collections might work for some patients but it is still a last resort step. You want to keep bad debt collections at a minimum. Although there are techniques to help prevent bad debt collections, the idea is the same – collect as much as you can, as early as you can. Receiving…
Read MoreOld Accounts Receivable? Use Six Strategies
What is the first step in getting a grip on your healthcare organization’s accounts receivable (A/R) performance? Detailed metrics including A/R aging, payor buckets and time period comparisons to start. Here are strategies to whittle down old A/R while managing current accounts. Assess the Forest and the Trees The first step in getting a grip…
Read MoreHealthcare Collectors Benefit with Left and Right Brain Skills
These days, healthcare providers are catering to more patients, which may be as a result of the significant rise in today’s aging population and or changes in healthcare insurance coverage. With such a tremendous increase in patients needing healthcare services, one would think there will be a corresponding increase in the profits generated by the…
Read MoreHow to Identify Causes of Denied Claims
According to industry statistics, about 200 million health claims are denied every year in the United States. With such staggering numbers, it is therefore important for your healthcare practice to not only track the major reasons for these denials but also take steps to prevent subsequent occurrences. Here are key areas to identify and reduce…
Read MoreHow to Reduce Preauthorization Denials
With all of its benefits, such as a significant reduction in unnecessary spending, prior authorizations still come with a lot of burdens, according to the 2018 AMA Survey. For instance, over 75% of respondents are burdened by the preauthorization process for patient treatment. Response wait time averages from one to three business days. The process…
Read MoreHow to Jump Start 1st Quarter Revenue
The number of high deductible health plans (HDHPs) has jumped to 75 million after sitting at just 10 million in 2010. How does this affect your medical business? Employees under an employer plan have an average deductible of $2,296.00 for single coverage and $4,104.00 for family coverage (Employee Benefits Survey: 2018 Results). Individuals under an…
Read MoreBridging the Gap to Secure Revenue
Keeping your front and back end processes flowing smoothly and bridging gaps where needed, will result in maximizing revenue flow, something very practice desires! Where do you start? Here are a few focal points to champion a strong billing and collections process. FRONT: Start Before the Patient Arrives This means the staff needs to verify insurance…
Read MoreWhen is a Child Responsible for the Balance?
The general rule is that parents are not responsible for an adult child’s medical debt, but they are responsible for a minor child’s bills. Confusion about Child-Parent Responsibility for Healthcare Bills However, who is responsible for an account if the parent completes the initial patient forms when the child is a minor and the child…
Read MoreWhen Does the Revenue Cycle Begin?
Your revenue cycle begins at the front desk, as this is the area that typically receives intake information. If your practice uses a self-service kiosk, your patients can also benefit when you arm your front desk team with essential billing knowledge. Front Desk Professional A front desk pro can make a big difference within the…
Read MoreEarly Out from Bad Debt
Implementing an early out strategy is an underused key to timely and efficient collection action, avoiding unnecessary aging of accounts. Below are some recent survey statistics to make you think about the state of collections in the medical practice field: Less than one in 10 of healthcare organizations will recover more than 20% of outstanding…
Read MoreOvercoming Objections to Collecting Patient Balances
Your practice or medical organization may be finding itself up against the wall in the face of operational expense increases, decreased reimbursement, and larger patient balances. Consumers can resist collections approaches and it might not be due to a simple unwillingness to pay. It may be tied to emotions and personality types. With this in…
Read MoreWhy is Your Claim Not Processing?
The majority of insurance carriers are mandated to deny or pay a claim within 30 days of receiving it. As a practice, you know you need to receive payment from the carrier (and the patient, for that matter) as quickly as possible. You also know this doesn’t always happen. Why? A Proactive Approach A few…
Read MoreKey Differences: New Medicare ID Card
In April of 2018 and continuing for one year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will launch new Medicare cards. Called Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs), these new numbers will replace the current health insurance claim numbers (HICN) that are social security numbers. The idea is to help prevent Medicare fraud and help beneficiaries…
Read MoreCollecting Deductible Resets and Patient Payments
10 million consumers were in high deductible health plans (HDHPs) in 2010. Less than ten years later, 75 million are enrolled in these plans, a 650% increase. For you, this poses a challenge because patients usually ending up paying more out of their pocket for your services. Deductible Resets Deductible changes challenge patients and providers.…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Medicare Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN)
Also known as form CMS-R-131, applying the ABN when needed might be among the most misunderstood areas for Medicare providers. The purpose of the ABN is: If Medicare does not cover a service or treatment you have provided a patient, you can collect from the patient only if you have communicated the cost, that the…
Read MoreSeven Ways to Stop Claim Denials
With denials remaining a significant roadblock to full and timely reimbursement, and while denials occur across the revenue cycle, a high percentage are associated with eligibility, authorization and registration activities, all front-end processes. Consider these sobering industry statistics: Claim denials impact more than 3.3% of patient revenue 63% of denied claims are recoverable on first…
Read MoreHow to Stay Ahead of Collection Delays
Ensuring payment is just as important as submitting a clean claim on time. Payments are delayed for many reasons resulting in the need to collect more aggressively. This is key since the collection process itself now demands more follow up labor expended than it did in the past. One would think because of technology advances…
Read MoreTop Methods to Avoid Claim Denials
The information below suggests reasons for and ways to avoid crippling your cash flow by effectively managing claim denials. The most common six reasons are: Exceeded time to file limits: With so many payors (the average practice uses 13) and different filing timelines a deadline is easy to miss. Know what your payor time limits…
Read MoreHow Many Opportunities Are Passing You to Collect?
Insured patient costs have increased 256 percent between 2004 and 2014 according to a survey in 2016 by The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation. Assist your patients and team to quickly obtain payment and successfully close accounts while boosting patient satisfaction and overall experience. Know Thy Patient This means to find out everything possible about the…
Read MoreDo You Have a Claim Rejection or Denial?
A huge threat to receiving timely healthcare reimbursements are the dreaded claim rejections and claim denials. In addition, these are two phrases often used interchangeably in healthcare billing circles that shouldn’t be because they hold two different meanings. Understand the difference and adjust your workflow to reduce double work. Claim Rejections Claim rejections refer to…
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