Healthcare facilities lose up to 5% to 12% of their revenue due to uncollected accounts receivable. For a big facility, the percentage just grows. This shocking fact should be enough to make you realize the importance of proper follow-up on your claims. Whenever denial happens, you must work towards removing the error but it consumes human time and massive spending. A key here is to get AR recovery services.
Medical billing is a complicated process. Mistakes happen a lot in many stages i.e. coding errors while preparing claims. And when claims are 100% perfect, sometimes insurance payers don’t make payments on time, whereas if they do, occasionally patients are unable to pay their bills. So how will you make sure you are keeping an eye on all these aspects and work on every single claim to receive its full payment? It’s almost impossible, but not for someone to whom you outsource your AR recovery department.
Here we are not promoting any specific type of AR company. Instead, we are diving into the clarity: is hiring an AR recovery service worth it? Does it save your cost? To know the answer, read our guide till the end and learn about the cruciality of these services.
How Do AR Recovery Differ From Traditional Collection Methods
Now many of you might think that when you both work towards revenue collection, how exactly are AR recovery services different from collection processes being conducted in your facility? Let us define the difference.
During normal billing procedures, your staff file many claims. Some of them are approved while some are rejected. Then, they become proactive and try to find out the reason. This results in further delay which reduces the chances of timely payments or even full reimbursement.
But a proper AR recovery process is one where all your claims are made perfect and reviewed before submitting to the insurance payers. The main difference is that they don’t wait for the claims to be denied. They use technology and reporting features to analyze potential mistakes and remove them before the claims are sent. This ensures full payment because there are no stones left unturned that cause rejection.
So why wait for the claims and bills to see whether they are accepted or not? With the help of AR recovery services you guarantee your revenue.
Assistance That Comes Under AR Recovery Services
AR recovery is not just one step in RCM. It’s a whole process that provides multiple offerings to ensure revenue collection as a whole. Here is an overview of what comes under these services.
Prioritization
When hundreds of claims are submitted a day there is the high chance that you forget which one to follow chronologically. AR recovery services take up this headache. They prioritize claims according to the date of submission. This way they first track those claims that are expiring soon and those that can be followed later are examined after crucial ones.
Account Management
The most crucial aspect of AR recovery is the record-keeping of accounts. They do this work for you as well. Their staff keep and manage all accounts receivable and regularly update their statuses. This helps in leaving no claim unfocused.
Need to Learn to Handle Denials In-House?
Denial Management
This may be the most commonly practiced service by AR recovery staff. A lot of denial happens per day due to a lack of focus on each claim. Don’t stress your staff to review this process as they are working on other aspects as well. Instead, hire a professional having specific expertise to handle your denials. They know common denial reasons as well as updated solutions to get you the revenue you deserve.
Communication
After billing, communication with patients and insurance payers may be the most complicated task for your facility. In a massive workload, your staff has no time to call every single payer and ask for the payment.
But AR recovery services lessen this burden too. They keep close contact with all your payers. This helps them in communicating whenever there is a need to discuss payer rejections. It helps remind the payers about their owed claims which results in ensured reimbursement.
AR Recovery Service Vs Self-Collection
Let’s come to the main point and discover if taking professional AR assistance is worth spending. Or can your healthcare facility handle the claims more proficiently? The decision is truly yours. But as we speak for your benefit, it’s a good idea to have some help from those who work specifically on this task. Here is a cost overview of both options to help you conclude whether it maximizes your revenue or not.
When you let your staff handle claims and revenue collection, it requires investment in both human resources and technology infrastructure. You first have to train your staff and keep them updated with the latest collection strategies. But this doesn’t work all the time because when they are used to traditional methods, it becomes very difficult to shift towards modern techniques.
Also, when new technologies come up you have to spend expenses on installation and learning of the staff again. This all sums up a big amount spent on in-house recovery. So when it results in increased revenue, your expenses are increased too. And this doesn’t define more collection as you are spending likewise.
On the other hand, AR recovery services might seem a little expensive, but all aspects like record systems, their use, and allocated staff come under the service. You are paying for the service as a whole, not the individual costs of each. No matter how many updates come they know how to modify their strategy. They offer a customized solution for your needs including complete denial management as well.
Now if you compare an individual facility’s cost with a service package, then of course you will go towards AR recovery services. In that case, you have to pay monthly for the entire collection, whether the workload is heavy or not. But in-house collection requires daily spending that is much more than what you pay professional AR collectors.
Effortless Revenue Growth
Owning a healthcare facility is not easy. A lot of expenses are spent on multiple facility tasks. When you do it on your own, there is less generation of revenue after deducting your spending. So it is crucial to have AR recovery services for your accounts collection from patients and insurance payers.
Not all facilities are masters in collection techniques. However, a professional knows how to approach each payer and provide ease so that they can pay on time. Take your AR recovery to the next level and see your revenue touch the sky without putting in much effort.