Essential Medical Billing Advice Dermatologists Should Be Aware Of
We know that Dermatology is a broad medical specialty that focuses on skin illnesses and disorders. Apparently, the skin, our largest organ, requires careful treatment, monitoring, and prevention of skin-related disorders. Since dermatologists often see more patients than doctors in other specialties, the medical billing services and coding at your healthcare facility must be efficient and precise to reimburse effectively.
Before we get into some billing cycle optimization recommendations, let's take a quick look at dermatological revenue cycle management.
Dermatology Revenue Cycle Management is concerned with the financial interactions of dermatological practices. It is the process of building systems and deploying dermatological billing software to aid practices in monitoring revenue from the appointment to the receipt of payments from the insurance company or the patient.
Hereon, let’s continue reading to learn about some tips to ensure an efficient billing process at your practice.
Maintain an error-free claim rate of at least 97%
An error-free claim rate of your medical practice is the average number of claims paid on the initial submission. While every dermatologist wishes to achieve a percentage above 97%, the meaning behind that figure is significant. Anything less than a 97% clean claims ratio indicates that your medical practice is losing revenue and increasing its expenditures due to the time, money, and energy required to review and re-submit any denied claims. The greater the rates of your clean claims; the lesser time workers will spend attempting to rework those claims and more on patient care.
Submitting proper claims
Filling out claims correctly and avoiding frequent inaccuracies such as erroneous patient or insurance information and duplicate claims can save time and effort spent editing and re-submitting incorrect claims. When up to 80% of medical bills contain errors that need weeks of editing and resubmission, it is likely that your billing will not be as efficient as it should be without a second set of eyes scrutinizing your invoices.
Understanding dermatological coding systems
Dermatological medical billing coding is much more difficult since dermatological medical billing services span from small and easy aesthetic treatments to substantial and expensive surgical operations and skin grafts. Your healthcare facility's employees must be familiar with and able to comprehend widely used codes and modifiers linked to dermatological practices and associated procedure codes. The procedure codes for a skin biopsy, for example, are 11102, 11103, and so on, whereas those for evaluation and management services (E/M) are 99203, 99213, and so on.
Patient insurance Steamlining and verification
Most repeat patients are reticent to offer information and hand over their insurance cards for each session. However, you must verify patient insurance information frequently to ensure that it has been updated since this is the only way to assure proper communication with their insurer.
Have your medical billing and coding services outsourced
With recent billing changes and severe compliance standards to follow, dermatological practices may save a significant amount of time and labor (as well as peace of mind!) by outsourcing their medical billing. Dermatological clinics must establish a realistic and viable financial health strategy to maximize their earning potential. Medical billing outsourcing enables your clinic to process bills as efficiently and correctly as possible.
While you may do a lot on your own to enhance the structure and speed of your billing process, your overall income is still significantly dependent on your payor contracts. Insurance reimbursements are the lifeblood of every healthcare facility. If you want your company to thrive and grow, you must manage your medical billing, revenue cycle management, credentialing, etc.
Unify Healthcare Services steps into the picture here. Our specialized dermatological billing services may provide your business with the medical billing knowledge it needs to develop and prosper in today's medical market.
Schedule a demo with us to receive a free consultation!
