It’s a new year which means this is an excellent time to look back to analyze past performance to better understand how you can improve moving forward.
As the owner or manager of a medical practice you should be looking at how you can improve all aspects of your business. As we specialize in billing and coding we recommend paying particular attention to how you can become more efficient with your coding and billing.
We have highlighted poor coding and billing before and how it can cost a practice thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars in revenue. Since coding and billing is an ongoing process as long as your practice is in business, so must be your efforts to analyze and find ways to improve.
We have come up with coding and billing resolutions for 2023 that can help you set your practice up for more success in the new year.
- Outline Goals – You most likely already have a set of goals that you would like your practice to meet in 2023. Likely some of those goals have something to do with increasing revenue. To help make this goal easier to achieve you should consider setting specific goals around your coding and billing performance. Setting limits on the number of coding errors or making sure denied claims get followed up within a certain time frame can help your team become more efficient with your coding and billing efforts.
- Communicate With Your Team – If you set goals, communicate with your team as to what these goals are. This will help them understand what standard you are expecting and how they can help meet that standard. Even if you do not set specific goals, try to have regular meetings to discuss how things are going. This can help you fix any current problems and potentially prevent any future ones from arising.
- Track and Follow Up With Denied Claims – Denied claims are a fact of life for any medical practice. While you can do a lot to limit the number of denied claims that you see, you should make sure that your team is following up on any claims that do get denied. And to do so in a timely manner. Otherwise denied cans can result in lost revenue that you may never see.
- Use Analytics To Track Progress and Improve – Do not wait until the end of 2023 to understand how things are progressing through the year. Take some time every 3-4 months to analyze your performance to see how things are going and to see where you can improve. This is where setting goals for your coding and billing can really help. Taking the time to analyze the space between where you are versus where you wanted to be can help you better understand what area you need to improve. This will make any corrective actions you implement much more effective.
- BONUS: Celebrate Your Wins – The year is long and the job that you and your staff do is tough. That is why when things go right, you should take some time to celebrate your wins. This does not just apply to the coding and billing aspect of your practice. Throughout the year, try to take time to appreciate where your practice is succeeding and congratulate those, including yourself, for a job well done.
This time of year presents a great opportunity for both reflection and looking forward. If you have not done so already, take some time to evaluate where you are now and where you want to be at the beginning of next year. Doing so could set you up for a VERY prosperous 2023.