Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
Conduct an in-house claims audit to find out.
A
re you leaving money on the table? One of the best ways to
find out is to conduct regular internal billing audits. Among
other things, an audit checks that you're appropriately sub-
mitting your coded claims per payer, state and local guidelines. They
help catch minor reimbursement issues before they become big prob-
lems. They also help identify any weak spots in your coding and
billing practices that can trigger denials. Here are a few tips to make
sure your next internal billing audit goes smoothly.
Set a goal
If you don't have an in-house auditing policy in place, start there.
Your policy should advise your staff how they can assess coding quali-
ty performance with a consistent audit method. Typically, we recom-
mend that these audits be held annually, though you may want to per-
form them more frequently if you notice a problem with your revenue
cycle. As part of the process, you also want to set a goal for the audit.
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Coding & Billing
Prerna Gupta
• CLOSER LOOK Conducting annual in-house audits is the best way to stay on top of claims denial trends.
