“THE SECRET OF CHANGE IS TO FOCUS ALL OF YOUR ENERGY,

NOT ON FIGHTING THE OLD, BUT ON BUILDING THE NEW –

SOCRATES”

Socrates, one of the greatest thinkers of the age,was surely not thinking about Revenue CycleManagement when he wrote this, however, it surelycan apply! When you think about this phrase interms of Revenue Cycle Management,

we can say that there are many things that have beendone the same way in many practices for many years,for the shear reason of, “we have always done it thisway”.

Office Handles Patient Statements

There are lessons to be learned when you decide to clean up the old and focuson the new – one aspect of RCM, is Patient Statements, Often overlooked andunderworked properly.

There are lessons to be learned when you decide toclean up the old and focus on the new – one aspectof RCM, is Patient Statements, Often overlookedand underworked properly.

I worked with a practice that had a statementproblem, to the tune of about 500 statements weinherited when they signed up for our services.

As the Account Manager for this practice, I took a look at the statement process and discovered that out of the 500, about a fourth of them, were repeatedly being sent out since 2014/2015 for “No Show” fees of $25.00 a piece.

I then discovered that there were another fourth that werealso for 2014/2015, due to balances equal to $5.00 or less.

Second to last, were about 90 statements that had actualbalances due, but had never been collected, also from2014/2016 and then finally the rest were 2016 (at that timethe current year).

The next batch were comprised of about another 50statements that had Credit Balances on them and also had notbeen worked since 2014/2015.

The total reflected by all these patient statements was awhopping $75000.00 uncollected as it initially appeared.

I took out the “old” balances that were from the NoShows/$5.00 and under balances and that removedabout $20,000.00 right off the top and reduced thenumber of statements going out twice a month by200,

I then tackled the Credit Balances, which dropped the “old” down to 210statements to work with and took another $15,000.00 off the top.

so I was down to 300 statements to figure out.

After that process of elimination of the “Old”, I was downto 100 viable and collectible patient statements, whichequaled to a true balance due of $30,000.00.

Then it was time to hit actual balances from 2014-2016.

The first “New” process I put in place was to review allpayments from Insurance and Patients on all of theseremaining statement balances, to weed out incorrectlyposted payments.

Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

Run statements bi-weekly

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Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

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Go through them and vet out credit balances, lowbalances ($5 and under), zero balances – put them on awarning/flag status on the patient account that saysbalance due prior to next visit – instead of sending 20statements (costly to practice to keep doing when theydon’t get paid)

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Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

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Verify insurance and patient payments onall other statements to ensure thatpayments have all been posted correctly (dothis for credit balances as well)

Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

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For credit balances, verify who is owedthe refund, patient or payer and refundaccordingly

Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

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For actual, true balances due, after all has been verified, send out to the patients no more than three times and with three calls for follow up.

Patient Statements Follow The Socrates Method

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If the patient does not pay the balance after threecalls and three statements, then you can opt to putthem in collections with an outside agency, as you cangenerally recoup about 15-30% of what is owed or youcan also put a warning note on that patients accountthat they must pay their balance due prior to anyfuture services at the office.

Call toll free no 1-888-571-9069

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