Most people's New Year resolutions have been abandoned by the end of January. If you find your self in this group then take heart. You can still snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. To do so, you must understand two basic principals of achieving your ambitions:
1. Do not view a minor failure (i.e., you just ate a quart of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream) as final defeat (i.e., Well I might as well stop trying to give up sweets); and
2. Break your goal down into manageable pieces (i.e., I will lose 2 pounds in January; 2 lbs in February versus I will lose 25 pounds this year).
So, this is interesting, but how does it apply to medical billing? Well, if you keep these ideas in mind you can use them to achieve lofty improvements in medical billing performance. How? Start with a powerful and straight forward goal: Make sure your claims are clean before you submit them. This will help your medical billing in several ways:
- It focuses you on the most critical aspect of billing. If the claims go out the door clean you will find that all of the rest of the challenges start to become much more manageable;
- It allows you to focus on achievable, smaller goals (85% of claims go out clean in January, 87% go out clean in February, etc);
- Set backs position you for better performance tomorrow. How? You look at the claims that did not go out the door clean and learn what went wrong. Do you have a problem at the front desk with gathering demographics? Do you have a problem with training your data entry people? Do you have one physician that consistently codes incorrectly? Do you have one payer that really dislikes one of your common procedures?
- Technology can be a powerful ally in achieving this goal. The use of coding tools, automated demographic verification tools and scrubbing claims will eliminate many sources of up-front errors that lead to claim rejections.
So, as we approach the end of January this is the time to double down:
- Determine where you stand today (what percentage of your claims get paid on the first submission);
- Set your medical billing goals high (96% of all claims will be paid on first submission);
- Create a "goal ladder" where each rung of the ladder represents an incremental, achievable goal on the way toward your ultimate goal. For instance your may set incremental goals of improving your clean claim performance by 1 percent each month; and
- Develop a process for gleaning learning from claims that do not initially clear the clean claim hurdle.
With this approach you can make 2009 your best medical billing year ever.
Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II
1. Do not view a minor failure (i.e., you just ate a quart of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream) as final defeat (i.e., Well I might as well stop trying to give up sweets); and
2. Break your goal down into manageable pieces (i.e., I will lose 2 pounds in January; 2 lbs in February versus I will lose 25 pounds this year).
So, this is interesting, but how does it apply to medical billing? Well, if you keep these ideas in mind you can use them to achieve lofty improvements in medical billing performance. How? Start with a powerful and straight forward goal: Make sure your claims are clean before you submit them. This will help your medical billing in several ways:
- It focuses you on the most critical aspect of billing. If the claims go out the door clean you will find that all of the rest of the challenges start to become much more manageable;
- It allows you to focus on achievable, smaller goals (85% of claims go out clean in January, 87% go out clean in February, etc);
- Set backs position you for better performance tomorrow. How? You look at the claims that did not go out the door clean and learn what went wrong. Do you have a problem at the front desk with gathering demographics? Do you have a problem with training your data entry people? Do you have one physician that consistently codes incorrectly? Do you have one payer that really dislikes one of your common procedures?
- Technology can be a powerful ally in achieving this goal. The use of coding tools, automated demographic verification tools and scrubbing claims will eliminate many sources of up-front errors that lead to claim rejections.
So, as we approach the end of January this is the time to double down:
- Determine where you stand today (what percentage of your claims get paid on the first submission);
- Set your medical billing goals high (96% of all claims will be paid on first submission);
- Create a "goal ladder" where each rung of the ladder represents an incremental, achievable goal on the way toward your ultimate goal. For instance your may set incremental goals of improving your clean claim performance by 1 percent each month; and
- Develop a process for gleaning learning from claims that do not initially clear the clean claim hurdle.
With this approach you can make 2009 your best medical billing year ever.
Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II
About the Author:
You can learn more about world-class medical billing companies by going to the ClaimCare Medical Billing Services Blog. Learn how to achieve personal and business success at MyMerlin.net the on-line mentoring site for students and adults.
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