Managing a mental health practice can be overwhelming as the insurance reimbursement rates are getting lower and the cost of routine operations is increasing. And if the practice is not handled properly, it can cause revenue loss and patients’ dissatisfaction.
Licensed Medical Health Counsellor (LMHC), Rebecca Weiler said in an interview, “At this point, I have a mix of insurance and private pay patients, and I do my billing completely by myself, I have used an external billing agency in the past. Then, I was responsible for taking the co-payments and any self-pay by myself at appointments, but as far as billing insurance was concerned, I went through them.”
It does not matter if you are doing it all on your own or through a private billing agency, maintaining a good ethical relationship with your patients can be a tough task when it comes to getting paid for your services.
The following are some Insurance Reimbursement tips you should keep in mind before getting paid.
Keep Detailed Information
You should keep a detailed record of the patient’s information. This includes patient’s diagnosis, type of therapy, cure progress, duration of therapy sessions etc.
Keep Updated Information
One thing that happens a lot is that the patients change their insurance policies and forget to inform their physicians. If you want to avoid any claim rejection, then you should always keep the record of the updated insurance policy of the patient.
Keep a track of your Claims
All the claims should be tracked and checked at regular intervals. This way, if the patient changes the insurance policy, or there is a problem with the claim, or for any reason, the claim gets denied, it can be remedied right away.
Check when pre-authorization is required
Some of the insurance companies require pre-authorization for situations like having multiple visits in a day or sessions going over 45 minutes. The physicians should always check if the pre-authorization is needed. Weiler said, “To bill for sessions over 45 minutes, some insurance companies require pre-authorization, which has to come before the appointment. We don’t always know when a client comes in that there’ll be a need for that. So it’s challenging to get reimbursed after the fact.”
Keep an educated support staff
You should keep your support staff educated on medical codes for every service. If there are any coding changes, the support staff should be updated.
Billing the right way is extremely important for all medical practices. It makes sure that the practitioners get paid for all the services they provide and none of the revenue is lost.
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