Your addiction treatment center is only as healthy as its revenue cycle management. At the heart of the revenue cycle is the “Net Days in Accounts Receivable” performance indicator, which—in an ideal world—should be no more than 30 days. The faster you get paid, the easier it is to support a strong cash flow and avoid racking up bad debt.
Today, let’s look at our top 4 tips for shaving down net days in A/R so that you can keep your revenue cycle running like a well-oiled machine.
Target the Payers Who are Taking the Longest
When you have an issue with timely insurance reimbursements, it’s important to isolate the problem. Ask yourself: what insurance companies are consistently taking the longest to pay up? Make a list of the worst offenders and focus your efforts there to start. Rank insurers by the length of time it takes for them to make good on a claim, with the organizations taking the longest to render payment at the top.
Create a “Problem Account” SWAT Team
Now that you have isolated the majority of the problem, assemble a team to tackle the issue. If you have a large billing department, it makes sense to dedicate one team (or at least one staff member) to each of your “problem” payers. Make it that team’s job to develop relationships with the problem payer and determine what it is about your claims that is making the process take longer than it should. Are your clinicians making coding errors? Are you not collecting enough patient data during the admissions process?
Recognize Your Addiction Treatment Center’s Limitations
Appreciating the limitations of your organization can be a huge game changer.
For many organizations, it’s not feasible to do the hands-on billing department work needed to adequately address A/R issues. If your organization has a small billing department, it’s unlikely that your staff has the time or resources to take a deep dive into A/R delays. Likewise, turnover in billing departments can create gaping holes in institutional knowledge, especially when shaving down net days in A/R is such a relationships-based activity. When your staff member who has nurtured key relationships at your top payer leaves, it will take a lot of time for her replacement to rebuild the trust and communication needed to resolve complex claims issues. As you’re waiting for those relationships to blossom, you are losing money.
Recognizing your organization’s limitations and playing to its strengths is an important part of wise addiction treatment center management.
That’s why more and more addiction treatment centers are choosing to outsource their billing activities to organizations like BehaveHealth that specialize in billing for addiction treatment. At BehaveHealth, we have long-standing relationships with all of the top payers in the industry. We are able to find and correct billing errors before they ever become a problem. And when we do run into tricky claims, we know how to resolve the issue quickly.
We handle everything: VOBs, utilization reviews, billing, collections, denials, and appeals. Our all-in-one addiction treatment software solution is simple and intuitive. Billing is built into our EHR, so claims are placed as soon as your clinician completes their notes.
Reduce Your Addiction Treatment Center’s Net Days in A/R with BehaveHealth
Imagine what it would feel like to crush your organization’s A/R goals quickly and easily. Getting paid on time, more of the time, gives your addiction treatment center the competitive edge it needs to survive in today’s crowded marketplace. Claim your free trial of BehaveHealth today and see why more organizations are making the switch today.