For chiropractic practices that accept insurances, the financial success of the business depends on submitting accurate insurance claims and receiving reimbursements on time. But today’s chiropractic billing process is often so complicated that it takes not just weeks but sometimes months to get your claims reimbursed by insurance companies. Improving your billing practices and claim submission process will lead to faster submissions and boost your first-pass approval statistics. Learn how to manage your chiropractic billing, submit claims, post payments, and follow up on all of your insurance claims in an efficient manner. 

1. Submit Your Claims At Least Once a Week

Getting payers to reimburse you in full for chiropractic insurance claims is complicated enough. Don’t let timely claim filing ever be a reason for delayed or denied payments. Whether you’ve a dedicated biller or you file claims yourself, your claims can pile up much more quickly than you realize. Submit your claims at least once a week. If possible, file claims daily. Dedicate a day every week to check all your pending claims for the week and submit them to improve your billing process.

2. Post Your Payments At Least Once a Week

Payment posting is an integral part of the chiropractic insurance billing process. It provides a complete view of insurance payments in EOBs, payments from patients, and insurance checks from ERAs. Post payments at least once a week, so you or your staff can work on the outstanding claims promptly. You can bill the patient for the balance due in a timely manner.  This ensures that your practice is paid more quickly and accurately.

3. Do Not Delay in Posting Adjustments/Write-Offs

Without posting these, you will not get a clear picture of what you really are owed. You might see a large number like $35,000 in Accounts Receivable but in reality $25,000 out of which was just going to be written off anyways. So the true accounts receivable don’t become visible until all adjustments/write-offs are posted. Checking write-offs and adjustments against fee schedules and policies may also help you disclose errors in payments.  

4. Keep a Track of Your Account Receivables

The process of chiropractic insurance billing does not end with the claim approval. You have to ensure that the correct claim amount is deposited in your account based on your contracts with insurance companies. As with any other business type, tracking Accounts Receivable (AR) days is essential to financial excellence. The term A/R refers to the outstanding amount owed to providers for issued treatments and services. It’s acceptable to have a few claims that haven’t been reimbursed in 90 days but if you have a large number of claims that haven’t been reimbursed for over 90 days, there is a potential problem. This is the money you will potentially lose if you don’t follow up on it immediately.

Here are some handy tips to keep a track of your account receivables:

• Less number of days in A/R represents greater efficiency and faster payment.
• Always separate A/R by insurance and patient balances.
• Determine various insurance payer types, and understand how their guidelines affect your accounts receivables.
• Keep tracking the outstanding amount for each insurance payer.
• Check monthly reimbursement trends for each insurer.
• Closely monitor your AR days and amount and follow up to ensure the owed amount is paid quickly.
• Follow the right chiropractic billing and coding practices to avoid denials.

5. Outsource Your Chiropractic Medical Billing

Many chiropractic practices are comfortable with handling their chiropractic insurance billing process in-house. But if you make over $50K per year, you should consider outsourcing your billing to experts who can take care of it for less than your hourly billing rate. This helps you focus your time on activities that will help grow your practice. Some billing chiropractic billing services providers charge a percentage of collections. The hourly rate of these companies comes out to about minimum wage! So it sometimes is a no-brainer. To learn more about how you can achieve long-term financial success with zHealth’s managed chiropractic billing services while providing top-notch patient care, contact us today. zHealth’s chiropractic billing services include coding review, denial management, payment posting,  AR follow-up, and other services. Contact us to learn how leading practices have increased their revenue with our billing services.

6. Automate Your Billing Process

Complex and mind-numbingly repetitive billing tasks that can be easily automated using chiropractic billing software are a drag on your business. You or your billing staff might end up spending hours submitting claims that you could otherwise utilize on more patient-centric services. Using chiropractic medical billing software allows you to access medically necessary documentation for insurance claims, submit them, track their statuses, and post payments – everything in one place. With 24/7 access to chiropractic EHR and billing software and patient data, a variety of issues with claims can be avoided from the very beginning of the process.

• You can leverage chiropractic billing software to avoid coding errors.
• An integrated clearinghouse will scrub your claims before submission.
• Billing Software helps you send chiropractic insurance claims with just a few clicks.
• Readily track claims that have been paid and which require follow-up.
• You can run regular accounts receivable reports to identify outstanding claims.
• Your staff can separate accounts receivables by insurance and patient balances.

All in all, by using chiropractic insurance billing software, you will see a reduction in overhead and operational costs and an improvement in the speed of reimbursement of claims. Click here to know the top ten benefits of chiropractic EHR and billing software for your practice.

Quick Tip on How to Improve Billing Process:

Two patients can have insurance coverage from the same company, but their insurance contracts can be different. Similarly, one insurance payer might reimburse for specific chiropractic insurance billing codes while another one will deny them. Make sure you check eligibility prior to every new patient appointment.

In Conclusion

An efficient chiropractic medical billing process and the best chiropractic billing and coding practices can help you increase your practice revenue and streamline operations. Automating the billing process using chiropractic insurance billing software can make your billing and claims process quick, efficient, organized, and accurate. By following the above-mentioned ways to improve the chiropractic billing process, you can achieve long-term success while providing the quality care your patients expect.

If you are looking for solutions to deal with billing issues, you should outsource chiropractic insurance billing services to zHealth. As your chiropractic billing company, we will handle your entire revenue cycle management including coding review, claim submissions, tracking, denial management, and A/R collections. Talk to one of our billing specialists to know how to get faster payouts without facing claims rejection. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How Can You Improve Your Chiropractic Billing Practice?

A1: It is necessary for billers to file a chiropractic claim the way the payer wants to receive them. This is important because the way a chiropractic practice files claims and the way an insurance company processes those claims is quite distinct. The right Chiropractic billing software can help you work with insurers, file claims, and get paid faster.

Q2: Ways to streamline your practice with Chiropractic Billing Software?

A2: Chiropractic Software provides a solution framework for chiropractors to automate their clinical & administrative processes and bring operational excellence, great practice management and workplace fulfillment for their employees ultimately leading to robust revenue growth. Here are 4 ways to streamline your practice with chiropractic billing software

• Helping Prevent Rejected Claims
• Streamlining the Revenue Cycle
• Enabling Better Front-Office Processes
• Eliminating Paper and Manual Processes

Schedule a Free Demo with zHealth Software and see for yourself what a difference it makes having billing software designed specifically for the chiropractic practice.

Q3: How to Improve Your Medical Claims Billing Process?

A3: An efficient medical billing system is of paramount importance to achieve these goals. Without an experienced biller working for your practice, it is incredibly difficult to minimize errors, adhere to the latest regulations, and optimize the billing process. And a flawed system could mean not getting paid what you’re owed.

Here are 5 ways to improve the medical claim billing process for your chiropractic practice starting today.

• Keeping patient records up to date
• Building coding and documentation in your workflows
• Automating simple billing functions
• Tracking your denials
• Managing your delinquent claims

Q4 How do chiropractors attract new patients?

A4: Attracting new patients is the key to successful chiropractic practice. If you can’t develop multiple consistent sources that provide you with new patients, thriving as a chiropractor is going to be difficult.

Here are 3 ways you can use to market your practice and build your patient base

1. Maintain a competitive online presence.
2. Implement a referral card program.
3. Make adjustments to your schedule.
4. Expand your outreach.