Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Medical Group Management Association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. During the conference, I was excited to speak with other practice managers, physicians and technology vendors about the constant changes in the medical field – including how people handle ongoing issues such as denials management and revenue cycle management.

In addition to these insightful conversations, I had the honor of leading an educational session about preparing for the pending 5010 and ICD-10 transitions. During the hour, I provided tips about how every practice can prepare for the implementation of both 5010 and ICD-10, especially focusing on how practices can ensure that they have mitigated the possibility of revenue cycle disruptions during the transitions. During the session, there were many great questions and I was happy to see people starting to think about the transition to ICD-10. In addition, Healthcare Finance News wrote a quick synopsis of the session, which you can read here.

I look forward to hearing how people take these recommendations and apply them to their own practice. As your organization works towards both implementation deadlines, let everyone know how it is going by adding a comment in the boxes below.

As the Business Office Manager for an orthopedic practice that sends out 650-700 claims a day, I rely on my clearinghouse to support efficient and accurate revenue cycle processes.  There are 23 physicians, 12 physician assistants, and 15 therapists at Orthopaedic Specialists of the Carolinas—and we’re growing. We need tools as dynamic as our practice.

That’s one reason why, in January 2008, we transitioned from our former traditional clearinghouse to a web-based clearinghouse solution. We’ve found some distinct advantages.

Read More ›

Every business office manager knows the challenge of trying to hold down the number of days in accounts receivable (A/R) and I’m no exception. As business office manager at Orthopaedic Specialists of the Carolinas, I’m charged with managing a claim volume of roughly 500-600 patients per day for 22 physicians, 10 physician assistants and 13 therapists.

I take pride in the fact that even with such a large claim volume—and four different locations—we average about 30 days in A/R. We’ve managed to accomplish this through a few distinct efforts.

First, we have become more proactive about collecting patient-pay balances prior to surgeries and other high-dollar services. With the difficult economic times, many patients have either lost their insurance or opted to increase their deductibles—which obviously has a direct impact on A/R. Read More ›