3 Common Billing Mistakes Radiologist (Physicians) Generally Neglect
Are you
sure about the accuracy of your radiology claims submitted by the in-house
medical billing team?
Medical
offices often work in a fast-paced healthcare environment where common, even
simple, radiology billing mistakes can and do occur.
Unfortunately,
even the minutest errors can lead to denials of the claims submitted, thereby
delaying medical payments.
Depending
on various statistic sources, NBC News report states that medical claims
observed around 7% to 75% of error rate in the medical billing and coding.
Regardless of the error rate, the AMA says that “medical coding errors fall
under the broad categories of abuse and fraud.”
Apart
from adding cost to your medical practices, these mistakes or errors can also
hamper your relationship with the patients. Therefore, reduce your error rates
and unnecessary costs, along with keeping your patients happy by avoiding the
common radiology
medical billing and coding errors.
Coding
Issues
Using
an outdated codebook or entering the wrong code by your biller or coder will
result in claim denials. If you’re using outdated coding books such as ICD-9
(International Classification of Diseases), CPT (Current Procedural
Terminology), or HCPCS (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System), or even
superbills, your practice could face a significant loss in revenue. Moreover,
inadequate documentation arises when a required supporting medical document is
missing or when documentation is insufficient, supporting the payment for the
billed radiology services.
While
coding and submitting the claims, you have to ensure that what is documented
must be billed. In the absence of such documentation, the carrier considers the
radiology services as not performed. However, claim denials concerning
insufficient documentation and improper coding are more complex as providers
need to improve the process themselves, ignoring the patients’ time.
Duplicate
Billing
Many
times, it is a human error when a duplicate bill arises. This usually occurs
because of the re-submission of a claim and not removing it from the patient’s
account. Thereby, all the claims
processing systems have a criterion that evaluates every claim received for
the occurrence of any potential duplication. The claims are generally placed in
two categories- suspect or exact duplicate. In fact, some of the claims may
appear to duplicate only due to their service nature. This demands the proper
coding of the radiology services with the applicable condition modifiers or
codes to identify the claims as a separately payable service rather than a
duplicate.
Exact
duplicate claims can be identified in the radiology medical billing from
the same following information:
·
HIC number
·
Provider number
·
Type of service
·
Place of service
·
From the date of service
·
Through the date of service
·
Procedure code
·
Billed amount
Services
not Covered/Coverage Terminated
As
insurance information keeps on changing, verifying the eligibility whenever the
services are provided is crucial. Before submitting the claims, you have to
ensure that your provided radiology services are still covered in their
insurance plan, your patient’s coverage has not been yet terminated, and their
maximum benefits have not been exercised. To ensure this, you must be aware of
the patient’s insurance plan and the radiology services you are offering.
Moreover, if you follow the correct guidelines using the supporting documents,
even the insurance plans with a cap can cover your radiology services.
Some of
the examples of radiology services are ultra-sounds, x-rays, fluoroscopy, and
alike. Be proactive, ask the insurance providers each time and verify the
eligibility before beginning the procedures and radiology services demanding
the precertification as per the terms of the patient’s plan. You also need to
supply the required authorization while filing the claims.
Avoid
Common Errors With Our Radiology Medical Billing Services
Are you
looking for alternatives to avoid these common errors?
Outsourcing
your medical billing services to one of the best radiology billing
companies is the best solution to your problems. Info Hub uses
a high-volume expert approach towards radiology medical
billing services to help you to eradicate
the common errors and mistakes. With decades of experience, we are the valuable
resources to partner with that corrects the errors seamlessly and quickly.We
also assist you with the dedicated processing of the claims and collecting the
money – efficiently and promptly. Contact us immediately for radiology billing outsourcing services and get a
solution to your billing and coding problems.
About Info Hub Services:
We are
a medical billing company that offers 24/7
Medical Billing Services and support physicians, hospitals, medical
institutions and group practices with our end-to-end medical billing solutions.
We help you earn more revenue with our quick and affordable services. Our
customized Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) solutions allow physicians to attract
additional revenue and reduce administrative burden or losses.
Contact:
Info
Hub Services
Tel: +1
302-703-1232
Email: inquiry@infohubservices.com
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