Many organizations we work with have identified and perpetuated a cycle of unbilled encounters by letting them go unchecked. Often, this happens when a doctor sees a patient and doesn’t mark their notes complete or lock it to signify that the encounter is ready to be billed. You’ve got the cost, you’ve done the work, but you’re not getting the benefit of a payment.
RCM360 is able to show practices where their notes are aging. A lot of payers have timely filing deadlines, set by number of days from dates of service. As we watch notes from dates of service, we put out a regular report tot he practice, showing all notes by providers that haven’t yet been locked. We also break it down by payer and into buckets: 0-15 days,15-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, 90-120 days. Typically, practices hit timely filing issues between 90-120 days, so it’s important to focus on getting your provider to finish their note and lock it to avoid unbilled charges.
What does this amount to? We once had a practice that had a couple hundred notes from one provider that had never been locked, therefore were never billed. The team at RCM360 can help identify these providers, so your practice can encourage them to lock their notes. Getting the entire team on the same page to get notes locked in a timely manner subsequently allows claims to be created and submitted in a timely manner. Although we can’t lock the note for you, we can continue to provide reporting on which notes are nearing timely filing, helping you get those encounters billed. Our average turnaround for client creation once locked is under a day. We get those claims out as quickly as possible to capitalize on as much as we can to get that money for you.
Think about it: how much are you losing because of timely filing? Is it because the provider hasn’t finished their note, or because your biller hasn’t been creating notes or coding them in a timely manner? Identify the issues, then take the necessary steps to resolve it.
