3 Successful Ways You Can Override Your Mental Health Practice’s Medical Billing
Medical billing and coding has multiple wings where mental health plays an important role. When it comes to having complex billing processes, mental health billing takes the first place due to treatment being alike than that of treatment given to other diseases. Even physicians cannot provide an exact duration as to when a patient recovers from mental health problems. Therefore, this makes the Mental Health Practice’s Medical Billing and most of the claims end up in denials.
This blog is for medical practices those struggle to have a streamlined medical billing process and concentrate on patients. Unlike other health issues, mental health requires ample time of physicians spend with their patients to understand their problem and provide correct solutions and medications for recovery. Let us have a look at the best tips to take the medical billing process of your mental health practice in a streamlined manner. These tips can help manage your mental health claims billing effortlessly.
#1: Always maintain detailed documentation
Preserving detailed documentation of patients is the foremost factor that can influence your mental health billing. If not maintained properly, it may lead to rework of capturing patients’ personal information, detailed records of patients’ diagnoses, treatments provided, response report of patients to the provided treatments, on what basis therapies are given to patients, and the estimated duration of therapy sessions. These details should be recorded so that you may not face any problems while submitting your claims.
Added to documentation, updating patients’ personal details immediately when it is changed, avoids you from getting your claims rejected. Before you fill the claim form, it is viable that you check for the patient’s coverage and then submit the claim form.
#2: File your claims on-time
Claims processing of your patient’s medical bills may vary from one payer to another. But you have to make sure that all your claims are submitted on-time, otherwise there are high chances for your claims to be rejected by the insurer (payer). Therefore, it is vital to get in touch with the insurer whom you have signed up a contract with, for the information about claims processing details. Depending on the insurer policies, submission of claims can be between 90 days to 18 months, and some may expect you to submit claims twice a month as well. However, it is your responsibility to get your files claimed on-time and receive complete reimbursement as per the treatment.
#3: Track your claims
Submission of claims alone does not get reimbursements for you. You should keep a track of your claim submission date and follow-up regularly to know the status of your claim. This will help you know discrepancies rose against your claims and resolve it immediately and resend it to the insurer. Keeping a track of your claims and updating your patients improve their trust upon you and enables a long-term relationship between you and your patients.
Though these three remain to be the important one among several Mental Health Practice’s Medical Billing tips, you should also know to verify all new or potential patient information directly rather than waiting for them to come and update you; identify whether a pre-authorization is required and if so, to find out when it is needed, and finally, analyse whether enough training is provided to your support staff.
Conclusion
Since it is known that mental health medical billing is quite difficult for medical practices to pay attention and collect details immediately in their busy patient appointment schedule, it is a wise idea preferring to outsource your mental health billing. To suggest you the best medical billing company in the USA, we have 24/7 Medical Billing Services to deal with any kind of medical billing and coding, especially mental and behavioral health billing efficiently and rigorously.
