New Year, New Cards

Happy New Year! The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the “new year, new insurance question.”

Though not all, a lot of insurance plans renew at the beginning of the year. Now is a good time to bring awareness to your staff, and implement a good policy to verify a patient’s demographic information. Not receiving new insurance information at the time of service can cause significant delays in your claim processing, and can even result in timely filing denials if the new information is gathered too late. While it is the patient’s responsibility to furnish any new information at the time of service, most won’t remember to provide this without a friendly prompt from the office.

Having the patient’s information out and ready for review prior to check-in is a great way to be sure nothing slips through the cracks. Even if you saw the patient 2 weeks ago, it is a good idea to ask them to initial their patient registration and insurance forms stating that all information is current and correct. If there is a change, obtain a new form and copy of the insurance card.

This serves two great purposes; it ensures that the claims and statements will be going to the correct places, and it gives you an avenue of liability if the patient neglects to inform you of any changes. If a claim is denied, and the patient is ultimately responsible, this will provide the necessary documentation proving that the patient, not the practice, was negligent. While we like to believe all of our patients are honest, that is sometimes not the reality, and covering all bases is good common sense.

On the reverse side is the billing team. Another good way to ensure that nothing is missed is to run a quick electronic eligibility check on any patients whose insurance allows this. In this way, if outdated information is on file, the patient can be contacted right away and any corrections or updates can be entered quickly, with almost no impact on reimbursement.

With both sides of the house working together, an easy and efficient process can be integrated into your practice guaranteeing this small detail doesn’t turn into a large headache in the New Year.

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply