You think you’re a billing whizz?

Give your private practice a financial health check-up. Simon Brignall poses ten questions relating to the medical billing and collection task in your business. Once you have answered the questions, total up your score to obtain your prognosis.

1Are you up to date on the medical billing for your practice?

 

A. I honestly don’t know.

B. I think we are up to date on the billing, but the chasing is where we have an issue.

C. We have strong procedures that ensure we routinely raise and chase outstanding invoices.

D. We haven’t raised an invoice in months.

2Do you know how much money is outstanding in relation to unpaid invoices for the practice?

A. I have access to a live aged debt report that breaks down outstanding invoices by a range of criteria.

B. I have no visibility whatsoever.

C. I get a report every month, but it’s difficult to see what is outstanding.

D. I only get something if I ask my PA and then I often end up waiting for days/weeks for the answer.

3What is your chase process regarding outstanding payments? 

 

A. As we are a busy practice, the chasing is always the first task that gets set aside.

B. We have a robust chase procedure that we routinely follow to ensure the practice’s aged debt is kept to a minimum and cash flow is optimised.

C. As we don’t have visibility on what is outstanding, my patients are rarely contacted about the money they owe.

D. We have a blitz once or twice a year when it starts to mount up.

4Do you write off much debt in your practice?

 

A. We write off anything that is outstanding after a year rather than chase it.

B. We struggle to work out what is outstanding. I think we have tens of thousands of pounds owed going back years.

C. Due to our robust chase process that includes debt collection, bad debts are minimised to less than 0.5%.

D. I am not sure what is the difference between aged and bad debt?

5Do you review your fee structure regularly?

           

A. I looked at it a few years back, but I can’t remember when.

B. I didn’t know it was something I should regularly review. I haven’t looked at this since I started in private practice.

C. I have been meaning to do this, but I wasn’t sure where to start.

D. I review my fees every year so they are up to date and, where possible, ensure they reflect my experience and other factors.

6Does the person in charge of your medical billing have other responsibilities within your practice? 

A. My personal assistant (PA) does everything for the practice. She/he is great with patients, and while they are on top of the invoicing, chasing debt is an area where she/he struggles.

B. My PA does this for the practice; however, I often feel that the billing role could be handled better.

C. As I partner with a medical billing company, this role is carried out by experienced professionals. This allows my PA to focus on the clinical journey for the patient.

D. I do the billing myself. It’s probably not the best use of my time. 

7Are you aware of any changes to either the Clinical Coding Schedule and Development group (CCSD) schedule or the private medical insurance (PMI) companies’ fees schedule that may impact your practice?

A. I wasn’t aware that these changed.

B. We just invoice to Bupa fees for everything.

C. We review the monthly changes to the CCSD schedule to see what is applicable and we always ensure we bill to the relevant PMI tariff – following their specific coding formula when multiple codes are used.

D. We try and look at this every couple of years.

8Do you make it easy for patients to pay your invoices?

 

A. Patients can make card payments if they can get through to my PA during work hours.

B. Patients can make payments into my bank account, but as a practice we struggle to reconcile these payments against the relevant invoices.

C. We try and collect payment on the day, but often patients leave without paying.

D. We offer patients a range of payments options to meet their needs – including the ability to make online payments 24/7. 

We have a pay invoice button on our website and we have the option for patients to settle all outstanding invoices at the same
time.

9What happens at the end of each financial year when your accountant is submitting your reporting to HM Revenue and Customs?

A. As we have access to accurate up-to-date reporting on the practice financials, we can send my accountant a simple report with all the data they need. 

B. We struggle to provide the data needed and it often creates more questions than answers.

C. Both my accountant and I are often tearing our hair out, as we can’t find the relevant figures.

D. My PA provides me with a report every year, but I really worry that it does not always reflect the true financial position of the practice. 

10Is the cost of your current medical billing solution reflective of performance in this area?

A. I just pay my PA a flat salary.

B. I pay my PA an hourly fee based on the work carried out, but I don’t know where their time goes as we still have lots of money outstanding.

C. As my PA has been with me for ages and patients like her/him, I don’t like to push. 

D. I have a fee structure that is based on received income which ensures we both share the same objective.


Scores

Q1. A=0, B=5, C=10, D=5.  

Q2. A=10, B=0, C=5, D=5.

Q3. A=5, B=10, C=0, D=5.

Q4. A=5, B=5, C=10, D=0.

Q5. A=5, B=0, D=5, C=10.

Q6. A=0, B=0, C=10, D=5.

Q7. A=5, B=5, C=10, D=0.

Q8. A=5, B=5, C=5, D=10.

Q9. A=10, B=5, C=0, D=5.

Q10. A=5, B=5, C=0, D=10.

Your score

100. You are a medical billing superstar. Can we employ any members from your team?

75-95. Your practice is in fair shape, but there is still room to improve. It’s the small changes and the desire to constantly improve that differentiate at this level.

 50-75. Your practice could do with a health check. Time to conduct a full review to tighten up on processes and reporting as well as add functionality. Of course, the easiest option would be to partner with a medical billing company that is an expert in this area. 

25-50. Your practice is in poor financial health. While not critical, it is time to implement radical change to ensure it is on the road to recovery.

 0-25. Your practice is on life support. Time to bring in the experts to resuscitate before you flatline. 

Simon Brignall (right) is director of business development at Medical Billing & Collection