Tackling your aging Accounts Receivable is never easy. What should you expect? What percentage of it can you actually collect? These and other questions may be on your mind if you’ve got a sizable aging Accounts Receivable backlogged. I’ve put together some of the things you should know.
I’d prefer to break it to you gently but the fact of the matter is most of your aging A/R will most likely not be collectible. Most billers will charge an hourly rate to handle this kind of situation for this reason (it may not be worth their time to charge a percentage of what is collected).
You should know that the older the claim is the less likely it is to be collectible. Your best chance of collecting will be in the first 90 days. Anything over this becomes much harder to collect. You’ll want to keep an eye on this as it can be less than cost-effective. If you’re paying an hourly rate you may even end up needing to pay more out to collect on a claim than you will get paid for the claim!
There are many factors that go into determining for your situation if it is worth collecting or simply writing-off the loss.
Timely filing limit may be the biggest of these factors. In most states Medicare gives you a year for timely filing while most other insurance companies gives you up to 90 days, depending on such things as regions, in-network, out-of-network, contract, etc.
Another major factor is preauthorizations (depending on the insurance company it may be called something else such as a Patient Summary Form but essentially the same concept). If you did not obtain preauthorization prior to treatment you can kiss your sweet time goodbye or have an incredibly good reason for it to be late as the chances of the insurance company paying is just about nil.
Lastly, your aging A/R may be in the patient area. It may be that you have not been collecting from patients all that is due at the time of service. You will have to really look at and decide, do you want to send out patient invoices from patients you’ve seen 6 months or a year ago? Some chiropractors do and some don’t. It’s really a personal decision here.
If you are outsourcing your aging A/R for clean-up you should discuss these concerns with your billing specialist and be sure you’re on the same page so you get the results you need and want.
If you are concerned with your growing aging A/R reach out to me. I’m happy to give you a free, no-money, no-obligation consultation so you know where it stands. I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have regarding aging A/Rs or any other billing topic. If you have any questions on this or anything regarding billing I’m happy to answer questions so give me a call! (727) 275-0301
Yours in health,
Rose Sims
Rose is the owner of Exceptional Billing, a professional external billing service with extensive experience in integrated healthcare, urgent care, physical therapy and chiropractic. We are here to increase your collections, decrease your denials, and to help you have a prosperous practice.