Physician practices are experiencing an uphill climb with a continuous struggle to stay on top of their accounts receivable. Unfortunately, this has not been an easy task for medical providers.

Practices need to look at variables such as cash flow,  continued denials, coding curves, and documentation practices.  These are considered necessities, especially while trying to keep up with the constant changing requirements of the insurance industry.  Failing to address these will result in losing thousands annually.

When you implement good, strong policies that I have mentioned above, physicians and administrators can keep a handle on their revenue cycle management. Key performance indicators will help monitor your practice on a monthly basis, and will cut your losses by serious percentages.

Some of the questions to ask yourself about your practice are:

• Is your total A/R within normal limits?
• Are your payers consistently accounting for about the same percentage of your aging?
• Are your write-offs and contractual adjustment ratio's stable?
• Is your net cash flow 90% ?
• And most importantly: Is less than 20% of  your total A/R aged 120 days or more?

Possible causes of these problems can include inadequate financial policies,  and/or collection procedures, inadequate staffing,  poor training of your front end staff and/or lack of accountability among  your staff.

When  performing A/R Analysis, it can uncover many issues, and once they have surfaced, new monthly goals should be set for the areas that need improvement.

Always set your sights a little higher until your A/R performance is stellar.

Exactly how much revenue is your practice losing?

Benchmarking your practice

A Benchmark is a standard by which something can be measured or judged, or a method of measurement utilizing specific standards in order to compare it with, and improve one's own product.

It is important to establish benchmarks so that you can set reasonable goals within your business  and then, analyze and compare new data against old data.

• Are you  seeing enough patients?
• Do you have a good mix of patients?
• Is your practice growing?
• Are your collections on par?
• Do you know your Average Revenue per patient?

These figures will allow you to forecast future income which will aid you in making valuable changes your practice needs!

Terese Ristem, CMRS, CCS, CPM
Advanced Medical Claim & Collection
290 Broadway Ste 395
Methuen MA 01844
Tel  978.683.5115
Fax 978.683.7337
www.advancedmcc.com