Posts Tagged Revenue cycle
Some medical coders are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. In fact, many coders enter the health care industry in a different capacity and find coding is “thrust upon them.” Brenda Edwards, CPC, CPMA, CPC-I, CEMC, vice chair of AAPC’s Chapter Association Board, recently authored an article for Advance for Health Information Professionals that outlined the many responsibilities coders often need to juggle within a practice, and specifically how those duties impact the overall revenue cycle.
“After the patient encounter has occurred, a coder must understand how to translate the provider’s documentation into the procedure and diagnosis codes that most accurately represent the services performed,” she wrote. “Getting hands-on with the codes could be compared to finding the missing pieces of a puzzle.”
Read the full article.
September 21st, 2012
If revenue is not at the top of your priority list–you might need to reinvest in some alone time with those priorities. AAPC member Ellen Risotti-Hinkle, BS, CPC, CPC-I, CPMA, CEMC, CFPC was recently highlighted in an article for Health Care Finance News on the top of revenue and what billers can do to increase it.
“Work your denials. “Denials seem to be the area that billers like the least and often procrastinate about the most,” Risotti-Hinkle said. “Believe it or not, insurance companies make mistakes and so do billers. Perhaps the claim was billed correctly, but the insurance company made an error and denied it.”
Read the full article here.
September 13th, 2012
Increasing revenue should be at the top of a good practice manager’s mind–often times though, it isn’t. Dixon Davis, VP of practice management for AAPC, recently gave Health Care Finance News six key steps to increasing revenue from a practice management point of view.
“Depending on the compensation structure of the physicians, a substantial net income may be expected in order to pay bonuses,” he wrote. “For others, simply keeping a positive number to support the current salaries is acceptable. Either way, it is important to manage the bottom line of medical practice to verify financial expectations of the owners are being met.”
Read the full article here.
July 25th, 2012
The ICD-10 implementation date is looming in the near future and AAPC continues to be a strong voice in the health care community about early implementation. “Putting off the implementation of ICD-10-CM could hurt medical practices and ultimately stop their revenue streams,” stated Rhonda Buckholtz, CPC, CPMA, CPC-I, CGSC, COBGC, CPEDC, CENTC AAPC’s Director of ICD-10 education and training in the most recent issue of Diabetes Practice Options.
The article highlights the various changes practices will need to be aware of to maintain their revenue and operations as the implementation approaches and beyond. “Health plan contracts should be reviewed to see how payment will continue under ICD-10 and what revisions to payment policies might be necessary,” she stated.
Read the full article here.
April 25th, 2012
“Providers’ billing staffs need to gather accurate billing information up front, use technology that will ensure the filing of correct claims, and receive appropriate, ongoing education,” stated AAPC ICD-10 trainer Yvonne Dailey, CPC, CPC-I in a recent HFMA Revenue Cycle Strategist article. “Medical billing departments that do not do these things may not be maximizing their payment.”
She writes about the importance the billing office plays in the performance of the revenue cycle and by having the billing office continue to learn with new technology will gain valuable insights as the future of health care progresses.”As part of their on-the-job education, they should review the reasons for denials so they can learn about changes in payer guidelines and/or regulations. The billing manager should share that information with the physicians so that they, too, can learn about the changes,” she added.
The article is available to HFMA subscribers.
February 2nd, 2012
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