Many facilities struggle with cash flow issues as a result of delayed billing and patients without payer sources. We, at Comprehensive A/R Solutions, have perfected a billing and advisory model that has helped keep our clients running a healthier cash flow and maintain payers more effectively. Medicaid, being that it is typically the largest payer in a facility, is a great payer to focus on with improving cash flow.
Weekly vs. Monthly Billing
Many facilities have a preference to bill all their payers monthly, including Medicaid. NY Medicaid allows for a weekly billing cycle. While it can be more cumbersome to bill weekly, allocating the extra time is well worth the cash cushion
In addition, if there is any given coding issue with a patient’s claim it will be caught on a weekly basis and allow a facilities biller to be more proactive on correcting the coding to bill. With increasingly tight timely filing limitations, it is imperative to timely identify billing denials for necessary corrections
Payer Planning
Being reactive with payer planning as opposed to being proactive can further build up bad debt. Two key issues with a reactive method:
First and foremost, when a Medicaid application is delayed and only addressed upon a change in resident’s status to “pending”, often times, a delay in cooperation from the responsible party or a delay in obtaining necessary paper-trail documentation results in a late start to the Medicaid application. This in turn leads to gaps in coverage dates necessary to cover the entire stay.
Second, many residents are in need of a Medicaid application to cover coinsurance dates of service which often begin immediately on admission., when a Medicaid application is only being addressed upon a change in status to “pending”, many times those prior coinsurance balances aren’t included in the application increasing a facility’s bad debt.
At Comprehensive A/R Solutions, our client base learns to be proactive instead of reactive. If a long term stay is anticipated or coinsurance balances are expected, the Medicaid application will be addressed immediately on admission to ensure a quick application filing and a quick turnaround time for approval. This leads to lower Medicaid aging balances and improved cash flow.
Don’t be afraid to outsource your Medicaid applications!
There are times in a facility where the case details on any given patient are financially complex, and the facility cannot handle the application internally. In such instances, Medicaid denials can happen quickly, resulting in an uncollectible stay, and bad debt. A few such repeated scenarios can cause an A/R aging crisis and highly inflated days in A/R outstanding. Comprehensive Medicaid Applications has a dedicated team of experienced specialists who can apply for Medicaid on the facilities behalf, even with the most complex Medicaid applications. Our results and success in assisting our clients to a 0% denied Medicaid application ratio speak for themselves.
For further information about how we can help your facility, please e-mail info@comphcs.com to schedule a free A/R analysis and consultation.