A healthcare practice may suffer significant losses due to claim denials, patients who pay late, or failure to bill a patient altogether. Payment posting may seem straightforward, but it is the most essential component of the revenue cycle and prevents revenue leakage. Besides, it can significantly impact patient satisfaction, productivity, and overall financial success of the practice.
This guide will help you understand payment posting in medical billing, its methods, and benefits. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Understanding Payment Posting in Medical Billing
It refers to the procedure for assessing payments and a medical business’s financial standing. It also refers to the medical billing process’s payment recording. It provides an overview of insurance payments in explanation of benefits (EOBs), insurance checks from electronic remittance advice (ERAs), and patient payments.
It is the first and most important step in medical billing and overall revenue cycle management (RCM). Early detection and prompt resolution of a possible issue can help a practice save time and minimize disruption.
A well-organized payment posting procedure enhances the practice’s overall performance and efficiency, which boosts income and enables early resolution of recurrent or repeated issues. Additionally, it raises patients’ general satisfaction levels.
Why Payment Posting Is Important?
Efficient cash flow management and successful medical billing depend upon payment posting services. An inaccurate posting could result in a claim denial, which would throw off the balance of the medical billing process.
The medical billing process involves billing and coding. However, it’s important to remember that knowledgeable employees who handle payments can provide insightful data about the effectiveness of the RCM.
The ability of healthcare facilities to effectively manage their revenue cycle is directly impacted by payment posting services. Whether you are a large healthcare facility or an individual practice, you must follow this process.
Besides, daily revenue stream monitoring can help practices identify potential issues early on and take corrective measures. Therefore, processing claims, billing, and payment posting are critical to controlling cash flow, identifying issues, and making the required adjustments.
Methods of Payment Posting
There are two methods of payment posting. Here, we are going to discuss both methods to give you clarity:
Manual Payment Posting
Manual payment posting entails manually inputting each payment into the patient’s account. As a result, medical billing personnel must precisely evaluate and process each invoice and payment. By doing so, they can ensure that the entered amount is correct, applied to the right invoice, and that healthcare providers are paid rightfully for their rendered care services.
Automated Payment Posting
The medical billing team can leverage automatic payment posting. Using technology, they can enter payment into a patient’s account quickly and precisely. As a result, it reduces errors caused by manual data entries.
Besides, it makes it possible for providers to receive and process payments faster, which is crucial for smooth cash flow. Automated payment posting is an excellent option for medical practices trying to simplify their billing procedure as it is more economical and efficient than manual posting.
Benefits of Payment Posting in Medical Billing
Whether you use a third-party billing service or manage your invoices in-house, your payment posting procedure needs to be flawless! The advantages of implementing an efficient payment posting process are numerous.
Keep in mind that posting payments might have a big impact on other areas of your company. Patient care and finances are just two examples. Let’s discuss how payment posting facilitates cash flow management.
The following are some major advantages of precise claim posting in medical billing:
Effective Revenue Cycle Analysis
After you post payment to patient accounts, you can effectively examine your practice’s revenue cycle and identify areas for enhancement.
A successful analysis will help you optimize the revenue cycle by boosting profitability and enhancing the operations of your accounts receivable department.
Financial tracking is crucial for all types of businesses. The healthcare industry is no exception. Providers and organizations can better monitor their financial operations with accurate payment posting. It provides insight into the business’s overall financial condition.
Besides, it provides practices with a clear and comprehensive record of rendered care services. Having this detail on hand can assist medical facilities in finding ways to boost their earnings.
Timely Reimbursements
An accurate payment posting process can help you ensure a healthier revenue cycle. But what is the process that makes this swift financial turnaround possible? Quick claim processing and reimbursements can start a consistent, efficient cash flow. Primarily, you achieve this by reducing delays and denials.
A few of the services provided by payment posting are the acknowledgment and posting of claim denials. It may also assist in identifying processes that require prior authorization. When you address claim denials promptly, you become confident that revenue will follow.
Besides, the EHR system aids in precisely updating a patient’s record. Medical billers can use it to see information about paid treatments, covered services, and more. Strong claim posting practices increase the likelihood of accurate financial records. By itself, this lessens the likelihood of experiencing further billing issues and claim denials.
Another advantage of a robust payment posting method is its ability to identify mistakes before they arise. By doing this, you won’t have to deal with claim denials in the first place. Some practices might have to wait days or even weeks to get paid for these rejected claims. Therefore, devoting time to this aspect of the revenue cycle process is essential.
When it comes to medical billing, there will always be issues. Handling hundreds of bills and claims is not an easy FEAT. However, effective payment posting procedures can lessen and address these problems as soon as they arise. In this manner, your billing team may concentrate on collecting money rather than spending most of their time correcting mistakes.
ERA and EOB Processing
If you’re unfamiliar with EOBs and ERAs, let us elaborate. EOB refers to the claim procedure and patient responsibility towards their accounts payable. This may include co-payments, deductibles, and coinsurance.
While the patient’s insurance procedure is explained to the provider by ERA. You might wonder how this relates to the payment posting.
When handled correctly, it guarantees that the data in the ERA and EOB fulfills payment criteria. They make it possible to examine a healthcare facility’s financial health realistically and comprehensively.
The billing team at your practice needs to go over EOBs and ERAs in detail, particularly before entering them into the billing software. By doing so, they will be able to comprehend any evolving patterns that may have an impact on denial rates.
How to Improve Your Overall Medical Billing Workflow?
Accurate claim posting helps you gauge your billing efficiency and infrastructure, enabling you to identify any reasons for low inflows. This provides an opportunity to enhance your billing system, starting from charge entry to final payment posting.
There are several ways to improve your medical billing workflow, some of which are listed below:
Focus on Denial Management
Upon observing and analyzing the rejection rate and type, one must apply their knowledge of denial management to resolve the problem and minimize the claim denial rate. It is a significant element that will contribute to improving the overall performance of the medical billing system.
Hire Specialists
Entering cash payments requires more than just entering claims. It also requires subject knowledge and professional experience to maintain information correctness. Besides, it also needs to ensure that the resources are properly analyzing the data. Employing knowledgeable and skilled claim posting specialists is crucial for the business and enhances medical billing procedures.
Follow the Changing Payer Requirements
Requirements vary from payer to payer, and providers must fulfill these to receive payment for rendered care services by each insurance company. Therefore, you must pay close attention to details and ensure that you follow all procedures precisely. Maintaining an up-to-date checklist that informs your team of which claims need to be sent where can also aid in timely and accurate claims filing.
Integrate an EHR System
Providers can ensure accurate payment posting, proper documentation, and coding by integrating an EHR system with medical billing software. Information transfer across distinct billing and record-keeping systems may result in keyboard mistakes and skipped data, which could later generate several unanticipated issues.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, payment posting is a fundamental process in medical billing that ensures efficient cash flow management and successful revenue cycle management.
It is critical to have a well-organized payment posting procedure involving accurate and prompt recording of payments, whether done manually or automatically.
With accurate claim posting, healthcare providers can improve their revenue cycle analysis, track their financial operations, receive timely reimbursements, and ensure that their billing system is running efficiently.
By following some of the best practices mentioned above, such as focusing on denial management, hiring specialists, following changing payer requirements, and integrating an EHR system, healthcare providers can enhance their overall medical billing workflow and ensure the financial success of their practice.
