Conventional wisdom reiterates that streamlining business processes is an integral part of revenue cycle management and it functions collectively to help businesses excel in a highly competitive economic environment. The trillion-dollar healthcare industry has witnessed a rise in patient responsibility and with effective billing, coding and payment posting processes, breakdowns in the system may be rectified to promote prolific services.
Payment posting is irrefutably the first line of defence to identifying payer problems. It is often done as an afterthought, after the completion of the medical billing process, yet holds significance in the smooth functioning of the medical billing process. Payment posting process in medical billing is significant as it also impacts the revenue cycle management.
In medical billing, there are many aspects that need utmost attention and payment posting is one crucial step that can avoid erroneous billing and ensure efficient revenue cycle management. Payment posting process is often handled based on the client specific rules that implies the cut off levels to make adjustments, write-offs and more. Patient cash posting on the other hand, ensures that patients who pay through credit cards and checks through patient portals will be accurately accounted, for successful closing of the claim.
Payment posting is also referred to as cash posting and it is done in two ways:
- Manual Posting
- Auto Posting
Precision-driven payment posting services are integral to successful medical billing and effective management of the cash flow. Incorrect posting may impact the accuracy of the claims creating an imbalance in the medical billing process.
Across the healthcare industry, medical billing and coding are given prominence and are known to be the key anchors for successful medical billing. It is however, important to note that an efficient payment processing team can provide important insights into the effectiveness of the RCM.
As one of the crucial steps in medical billing, payment posting services contribute directly to successful management of finances across hospitals. It is also an important process for solo practitioners or larger healthcare organizations. Payment posting process also has a huge impact on many other functions and the overall financial management for healthcare service providers.
In addition to helping healthcare practises in effective RCM, the daily revenue stream may also be monitored effectively to catch potential issues and make amendments. Hospitals and individual practises may thus get a day to day financial picture with an efficient payment posting service. Payment posting, medical billing and medical claims processing thus play a significant role in managing the cash flow, identifying errors and making suitable changes.
Why Accurate Payment Posting is Important:
Payment posting is a procedure that is integral to medical billing as it ensures that healthcare service providers are able to monitor the payments made on a daily basis to identify issues and solve problems. Payment posting services ensure that healthcare providers are able to see daily insurance payments from EOBs, insurance checks from ERAs and patient payments.
Medical billing is a multi-step process and there are several steps and large number of claims to be processed daily which means there are going to be issues that need to be managed effectively. Payment posting in medical billing is thus the first line of defence to zero in on the payer issues. In the medical billing process, often it is observed that issues like denials for medical necessity, prior authorizations are often uncovered and may be assigned to team members to address. Besides, identifying the loopholes in the billing process at the start, it will make the entire process smoother for staff that are actively involved in the process from the front office to the back office.
The Role of Payment Posting in The Revenue Cycle:
Payment posting has become an integral part of the revenue cycle. It is integral to the medical billing process, irrespective of whether the healthcare service provider opts for in-house medical billing or uses a third-party billing service. The decision to outsource payment posting services ensures that healthcare service providers focus on core business competencies.
Effective payment posting makes it easy to analyse revenue cycle management while strengthening the existing process. Payment posting services have high potential to enhance the smooth flow of account receivables. Therefore, healthcare service providers worldwide have chosen to outsource payment posting services.
The Role of Payment Posting in Medical Billing
Payment posting is essentially the cataloguing of payments into the medical billing software. If done with precision, payment posting provides a clear picture of the insurance payments in EOBs, insurance checks from ERAs and more. It also provides an overview of the financials including payments from patients that help determine revenue leaks for optimization of the process.
During the medical billing process, errors may occur due to many factors and issues are expected to get resolved at the right time. Payment posting thus gains importance as the payment posters are responsible for logging payments accurately. Diligent payment posting ensures that claims are processed without any glitches.
It is also important to determine the issues pertaining to billing. Any discrepancies or doubts that come up in the chain should be moved to the specific departments to be look into at the right time. This not only minimizes the medical billing errors but also ensure that the revenue cycle management is not impacted with minor errors. Besides, it ensures smooth functioning of the entire team form the front end to the back-end staff.
The Key Benefits of Payment Posting in Medical Billing:
It is important to note that a well-done payment posting process enables healthcare practitioners to identify opportunities to enhance revenue by observing the daily trends in the practice. Payment posting has the potential to enhance revenue by observing the daily trends within the practise. Owing to its impact on accurate billing and smooth process, it is crucial to get a precise payment posting process in place.
Solves RCM glitches: The RCM process may have many problems which may be resolved through payment posting. Payment posting services involves posting denials, identifying denials and more to correct the denials and prevent future claims from getting rejected.
Augments the existing process: Did you know that medical billing and RCM are interrelated? The processes that are involved in RCM impacts the medical billing companies’ teams and some negligence in the billing process may lead to reduced outcomes. Payment posting ensures that the problem is identified at the right time and helps the team derive solutions to effectively manage the process. Payment posting process ensures that problems are nipped at the bud and the overall revenue is not impacted.
Prevents claims denials: Claims denials are often due to erroneous filing of claims at different time lines. One of the most effective ways to solve the problem is to take extra measures to prevent them. Quick corrections of the errors lead to earlier prevention of claim denials. Payment posting in medical billing helps healthcare service providers achieve that. Time is an important factor to ensure that the errors are rectified as unresolved denials lead to huge revenue loss.
Ensures accurate claim submissions: Medical claims submission is one of the key factors in the medical billing process as it clearly determines the reimbursement once the insurance companies clear the dues. Accurate payment posting thus ensures that the secondary and tertiary insurance companies do not get billed incorrectly. Besides professional payment posting helps medical billing companies focus on the core business competencies with a streamlined medical billing procedure.
Payment Posting and The Revenue Cycle
Payment posting is one of the integral parts of the revenue cycle, irrespective of whether the billing is in-house or through a third-party billing service. A diligently carried out payment posting process can help healthcare providers and hospitals identify new opportunities to augment finances and revenue by contemplating the changing trends within practises and across healthcare sector. Accurate and professionally done payment posting process has high potential to augment profits and to ensure smooth medical billing process. Successful payment posting also plays a key role in revenue cycle management and here are few ways of how it impacts the overall finances:
Handling claims denials: Hospitals face many challenges when it comes to setting insurance payments and if the entire process is handled professionally there will be no room for discrepancies. Successful payment posting ensures that denied claims are reported to the denial management team for re-submissions in a timely manner. Avoiding claims denials should be the responsibility of every team involved in medical billing.
Processing EOB and ERA: Payment posting is a vital step that completes the medical billing process. Payment posting ensures that the data from explanation of benefit (EOB) and electronic remittance advice (ERA) are in tune with the payments. Accurate payment posting helps healthcare service providers speed up the payment posting and after posting services, to optimize business. A dedicated team should ideally analyse the changing trends by carefully screening the EOB before feeding data into the billing software. This fosters effective medical billing, while enhancing payments and reducing denials.
Provide inputs: Payment posting is much like an addendum, as it happens after the real process of medical billing ends. However, payment posting is a vital step in the revenue cycle management as it identifies and helps resolve errors in payments, improving cashflow and augmenting the RCM.
Patient Rights and Responsibilities: Patient responsibility is that part of the medical bill that the patient is required to pay and it is specific for certain categories. Like a patient with HDHP has to pay on their medical bills till the deductible is met. It is usually a higher amount. Patient responsibilities on the other hand ensure that patients are entitled to seven fundamental rights. The rights include right to access, privacy, partnership, safety, respect, right to information; and the right to provide feedback. Patients may be expected to be treated with consideration and respect and to be made comfortable during the treatment.
Write offs and adjustments: Amendment of invoices sometimes becomes necessary and adjustments are generally used when there are errors in the invoices. Write offs on the other hand are used to remove debts from the accounts receivable.
Effective payment posting is one of the many challenges faced by healthcare service providers globally. Choosing a professional payment posting service company will reduce the technical glitches and promote smooth payment posting for insurance payment settlements.
The Major Attributes of Payment Posting
Healthcare service providers are often in pursuit of ways to amplify revenue generation and they often achieve it by following best practises. Payment posting in medical billing often seems like a simple task but it plays a significant role in enhancing the revenue cycle. It also impacts many other functions and the overall financial performance.
Hospitals and healthcare clinics therefore lay emphasis on precision -driven payment posting that can add value to the medical billing process and increase revenue. As one of the crucial steps in medical billing and an important component of revenue cycle management, the advantages of payment posting are many. It helps analyse the revenue cycle to increase profitability. Recurring problems may now be easily solved by identifying them at the right time.
Payment posting services also reduces the time taken to resolve denials thereby ensuring accurate claims submissions for maximum reimbursements. Most healthcare service providers opt to outsource payment postings services. A professional team that will not leave a stone unturned in striving for excellence is what you need to foster patient relationship management, efficiency in medical billing and profitable revenue cycle management.
What makes Med Billing Experts the trusted name for payment posting services?
Payment posting plays a significant role in ensuring smooth and uninterrupted medical billing, claims reimbursements and helps in the successful management of the revenue cycle management. At Med Billing Experts, a dedicated team of coders and experts well versed in the payment posting process provide impeccable service to healthcare service providers.
Once healthcare service providers choose to outsource payment posting service, the diligent team work ensures that hospitals focus primarily on the core business and in providing optimum healthcare while the medical billing and payment posting are managed by a professional team. Our emphasis is quality and we endeavor to provide nothing but the best services at cost- effective prices while catering to global clients.
At Med Billing Experts, we ensure a holistic connection between the various medical billing steps to yield successful revenue cycle management.
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