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Bethany Bueno Archives - Pinnacle III

Apr 09
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ASC billing office process improvement

ASC Billing Office Process Improvement – Conducting a Quarterly Review

By ASC Management, Leadership, Revenue Cycle Management No Comments

The saying goes, “Old habits die hard.” But in the ASC billing office, repeating the same mistakes costs time, money, and resources. Hence, the process of identifying process inefficiencies and areas of improvement is a constant responsibility for an effective ASC billing office. It is generally good practice to conduct a complete billing office process improvement evaluation and plan implementation at the end of each financial quarter. At the close of a quarter, there is enough data to review, identify, and correct negative trends. The start of a new quarter provides a clean slate for tracking the impact of the changes three months from now.

Where to begin?

Start by identifying your weaknesses by analyzing available data. This data can come from your patient accounting system and/or clearinghouse. Error tracking allows you to quantify mistakes that prevent clean claims. Reviewing clearinghouse rejection reports may identify trends. If you regularly find the same rejections, log the incidence as well as the resolution changes you make to help you identify and correct the issue. It may also be beneficial to review adjustment journal codes and ensure they meet your tracking needs in case you need to analyze payment or adjustment trends. These metrics can help you identify training opportunities for your staff at all stages of your billing cycle.

Collaboration

In an efficient billing office, a system of checks and balances establishes itself when billing tasks are departmentalized. The schedulers provide the patient and billing information, verification confirms the feasibility of the case under the provided circumstances, coders translate the visit for delivery to the insurance carrier, data entry qualifies the billing information, and accounts receivable ensures maximum reimbursement for the team’s efforts. Each subsequent person that handles the information relies on the previous person’s understanding of healthcare billing. Every individual’s work is verified, but not repeated, in the next step in the process. When each of these groups of people are housed in the same location, collaboration is as simple as looking over the cubicle wall. If your ASC billing office is off-site, the frequency and timeliness in which front office errors are communicated may impact the ASC billing office revenue cycle. It is important to have timely and frequent communication in this scenario.

Cross-train

Requests should not be put on hold when someone is out sick! Besides needing backup to cover absences, cross-training allows employees to understand how people in other roles manage their time and contribute to the success of the team. Transparency among departments and roles invites accountability. The quarterly billing office process improvement review is a perfect time to identify areas where cross-training is needed to fill gaps and/or back up a role.

Empower

A billing office’s process improvement plan success is dependent on the team’s commitment to the improvements. Encourage staff to participate and take charge of change. They perform the tasks that bring the money in the door. Policies and procedures sound good on paper, but execution can reveal unexpected roadblocks. Your team has ideas of how to prevent issues and improve the process. Implement the solutions that will work best for your team and your center.

Re-evaluate

CMS guidelines, fee schedules, CPT/ICD-10/HCPCS codes, pre-certification lists, and coverage policies – this information changes monthly, quarterly, annually. Subscribe to insurance company newsletters and follow medical societies, revenue cycle resources, and vendors. Assign someone to distribute beneficial information to affected groups of people. This may include surgeons, their billing office, facility administrators, and insurance verification specialists, in addition to your own revenue cycle team. The information released may force you to take yet another look at your revenue cycle needs and adjust as necessary!

Summary of Tips for ASC Billing Office Process Improvement

Make it regular. ASC billing office process improvement review should take place on a regular basis, whether conducted monthly, quarterly, or on another schedule.

Review the data. Reviewing rejected claims logs and other data allows you to identify trends and billing office inefficiencies.

Promote team collaboration. Billing office roles will naturally back each other up when operating in sync with collaboration.

Incorporate occasional cross-training. A fresh set of eyes can provide valuable insight into simple changes that can increase efficiency or reduce errors.

Don’t leave out clinical roles. They have valuable insights that can affect coding and thus reimbursement. Evaluate the use of expensive implants and supplies to ensure you are billing and collecting as your contracts allow.

Re-evaluate and update regulatory information. It is crucial to the essential function of the ASC billing office to maintain accurate and up-to-date records when it comes to CMS guidelines, fee schedules, CPT/ICD-10/HCPCS codes, pre-certification lists, and coverage policies. This should also be a part of the regular ASC billing office process improvement review.

The only constant in the healthcare industry is change. When so many professionals rely on your office for the financial deliverables of their organization, as in the ASC billing office, it is imperative to stay up-to-date with industry changes. Regular review of your internal processes is the best way to keep up.

Bethany Bueno, Director of Billing Operations

Apr 26
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ASC Business Office Checkpoints: Improving Your Surgery Center’s Bottom Line

ASC Business Office Checkpoints: Improving Your Surgery Center’s Bottom Line

By ASC Management, Revenue Cycle Management No Comments

If your ASC business office is not meeting their performance metric benchmarks, it may be time to re-evaluate your revenue cycle management policies and procedures. Business office personnel who serve on the front-end (scheduling and insurance verification, for example) and those who serve on the back-end (billing office personnel) must work as a team to achieve your ASC’s key performance indicators.

There are natural checkpoints built in to revenue cycle management. When striving to meet performance benchmarks, you and your staff can take advantage of these natural checkpoints if you know how to use them. For example, both your patient accounting system and clearinghouse have resources available to help identify opportunities for improvement. Additionally, internal tracking processes, including logs and dashboards, allow you to sort through preventable errors and identify staff members who need additional education and training.

Regular evaluation of revenue cycle policies and procedures on the front and back end of your process can assist supervisors, managers, and administrators address weaknesses, improve performance, and enhance your ASC’s bottom line.

Where do you start?

Begin your evaluation at the initial receipt of patient information. Schedulers and insurance verification personnel are at the front end of your financial flow. Accurate data entry is crucial to proper registration, eligibility, and authorization. Data entry errors, including incorrect policy numbers or failure to obtain subscriber date of birth, may create billing delays. To minimize unnecessary rejections and denials, consider developing and using a scheduling checklist.

A scheduling checklist includes guidelines on information your surgery schedulers must collect to ensure there are no omissions or errors when the ASC billing office submits a claim. This tool can reduce time delays in claim filing and eliminate the need to re-work rejected claims. Regular review of clearinghouse rejections can help you create and add to your scheduling checklist by identifying areas in which staff may be prone to making errors.

Monitoring patient benefits

Schedulers and insurance verification personnel also need a solid understanding of patient benefits. Knowing how to determine a patient’s outstanding deductible, predict coinsurance, pre-collect co-payments, and coordinate patient benefits are essential to success. To automate this process, integrate your clearinghouse whenever possible. Insurance websites also provide free tools that assist in determining patient benefits, eligibility, and financial responsibility. Evaluate the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of your scheduling and verification team by running reports from your patient accounting system. Review the total dollars pre-collected each month and challenge your team to break their record the following month. Celebrate their successes! And ensure you educate staff about when and why to use an Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN).[1]

Establishing self-pay policies for procedures performed at the facility which are not covered by insurance is also important. Ensure your team is familiar with in-network insurance carriers as well as the procedures and implants those carriers reimburse. Insurance carriers regularly publish and update pre-authorization lists. Track and evaluate denials attributable to no authorization, non-coverage due to place of service, and out-of-network write-offs. Set targets for the ASC business office team to increase collections and decrease denials. When target goals are met, reward your team for their efforts. Motivation and direction make a difference when seeking improvements.

What happens after submitting a claim?

Once a case is billed, use denial tracking to identify areas of education for coders and surgeons. Encourage coding staff to take a second look at medical necessity denials. A simple query to the physician can mean the difference between payment and non-payment. Review this information to identify areas for improvement. Denials related to bundling[2] might mean a coder requires additional education on proper modifier use. Medical necessity denials can indicate operative note templates need to be updated or coding staff need additional access to pertinent patient records.

Educate everyone about the cases that can and cannot be performed in your ASC. National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits and a list of approved ASC procedures can be found on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website or the website for the facility’s Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC).[3] Centralize front and back end staff access to your approved procedures lists and assign someone to review and update them on a regular basis.

Another checkpoint technique is separating the duties of your charge entry, payment posting, and follow-up teams. This introduces another layer of accountability. As your accounts receivable (follow-up) personnel work their aging reports, they can identify charge entry and payment posting habits that require education or training to improve accuracy and timeliness of account resolution. Payment posters will provide a second set of eyes on write-offs and can supply additional insight into tackling appeals and securing reimbursement. Accounts receivable personnel can also prevent timely filing issues by following up on accounts as soon as 30-45 days after the date of service. Regular reconciliation of unbilled claims in comparison to cases performed prevents missed cases.

Improving the flow in the ASC business office

There are numerous opportunities to tighten the flow of patient information from scheduling to final payment. Cross-checking information at critical points in the ASC revenue cycle reduces billing delays and preventable denials. Separation of duties among ASC billing office staff allows you to build natural checkpoints into your system, preventing costly errors including unnecessary write-offs. Once areas for improvement have been identified, set achievable goals and timelines for your staff, then celebrate their successes.

Bethany Bueno, Director, Billing Operations, Specialty Billing Solutions

[1] An Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN) is given to patients to forewarn that Medicare may deny payment for their treatment.

[2] A bundling denial occurs when a procedure requires a qualifying procedure be received and covered and the qualifying other procedure has not been performed or adjudicated. A denial related to unbundling occurs when several CPT codes are billed for a service when one inclusive code is available.

[3] A Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) is a private health care insurer that has been awarded a geographic area or “jurisdiction” to regionally manage the policies and medical claims for Medicare Part A and Part B Fee-For-Service (FFS) beneficiaries.

Aug 30
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Diagnosis Please: It Pays to be Specific!

Diagnosis Please: It Pays to be Specific!

By ASC Management, Revenue Cycle Management No Comments

Payors often update their clinical policies in ways that modify how ambulatory surgery centers and physicians must document their interactions with, and sometimes even how they treat, their patients. Staying informed of these updates is crucial to an ASC billing team’s success in obtaining the expected reimbursements. As surgical procedures proliferate, payors are demanding an increased focus on diagnosis specificity. Physicians, surgery schedulers, coders, and billing departments all have a role in expeditiously implementing payor clinical policy changes to ensure reimbursement losses are minimized when policies change.

For example, Aetna’s Clinical Policy Bulletin #0673 changed how ASCs approach meniscectomy cases – procedures billed via CPT codes 29880 and 29881. From Aetna’s perspective, meniscectomies billed without a current injury diagnosis are deemed experimental and investigational (not reimbursable). Therefore, at time of scheduling facility personnel should be able to anticipate whether the meniscectomy case will result in payment or denial based on the patient’s history. Surgeons who add time parameters and other adjectives to the patient’s post-operative notes can clarify the type of tear to ensure medical records and letters of medical necessity do not need to accompany the claim.

The time parameters acute, chronic, acute on chronic, and recurrent are important documentation factors in ICD-10-CM. The difference between billing a specified and an unspecified code may rely on one of these time parameters. Additionally, the distinction in the operative note between an old and a new injury assist coders with proper diagnosis specificity. The indications heading of the operative note is the ideal section to include details regarding injury, trauma, acute, chronic, recurrent, or degenerative conditions.

For example, without knowledge of the patient’s medical history, the postoperative diagnosis “right knee medial meniscus tear” is coded as “M23.231 – Derangement of other medial meniscus due to old tear or injury, right knee.” According to ICD-10-CM coding guidelines, if acute or chronic is not specified, the default diagnosis – chronic – must be assigned. Your surgery center coders should query the physician to obtain greater diagnosis specificity and to gain access to the History & Physical or other parts of the patient’s medical record that clarify the condition.

Ideally, a stand-alone diagnosis reads “medial meniscus tear of right knee, current injury” with a sentence in the indications section of the operative note such as: “The patient is an 18-year-old male who suffered an acute injury to his left knee while playing basketball.” This example yields diagnosis code “S83.231A – Complex tear of medial meniscus, current injury, right knee, initial encounter.”

Other key descriptive words to include about meniscus tears in post-operative documentation are:

  • Lateral, medial, bucket handle
    • Complex, peripheral, bucket handle

Sample key descriptive words to include in post-operative documentation about rotator cuff tears include:

  • Complete, incomplete, traumatic, non-traumatic, capsule

On average, it takes payors two weeks to issue a claim response (payment or non-payment). When the diagnosis specificity in the operative note is lacking and the carrier requests medical records, an additional 30-60 days is tacked onto the carrier’s payment processing time.

To improve claims processing efficiency, maintain open, direct communication between the patient’s record keepers and the ASC billing department. Regularly review medical necessity denials in the context of clinical policies and operative note documentation. Doing so ensures you are well apprised of payor clinical policy updates and minimizes reimbursement losses.

Bethany Bueno, Director of Billing Operations