5 Common Mistakes Physicians Make with Family Practice Billing

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5 Common Mistakes Physicians Commit with their
Family Practice Billing
The family practice medical service is
all-encompassing and involves more than one field
of medicine. Ideally, medical billers who work
for family practice need to have extensive
knowledge of diagnosis and procedure codes
commonly used by the physician. This ensures that
patients and insurance companies are billed
correctly. It also guarantees that the physician
receives maximum reimbursement for the service
provided. Lets have a deep understanding of
common mistakes physicians commit with Family
Practice Billing Basic Mistakes in Family
Practice Billing 1. Neglect to verify their
patients Insurance Very often medical
billing claims get refused on the basic ground
that the patients coverage has been terminated
or may not be eligible for the date of service.
Family physicians often take for granted that
their regular patient, whose insurance had been
verified initially, stands the same every time
they come in. This may not always be the
case. 2. Simple inaccuracies during form
filling Often family physicians are so occupied
with putting their regular patients at ease that
they tend to forget about
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5 Common Mistakes Physicians Commit with their
Family Practice Billing
filling in the simplest and smallest of details
right from the spelling of the patients name to
whether the diagnosis code corresponds to the
procedure being performed. This causes claim
denials or at the very least delays in
reimbursements 3. Wrongly coded A majority of
the time due to the hand-filled forms,
misinterpretation of the family physicians
handwritten coding can lead to claim denials.
Further, family physicians often fail to update
their coding books, which can cause further
delays in claim denials and resubmissions. Also,
upcoding, wherein a level of service or procedure
has not been performed, but in order to collect a
higher reimbursement, the procedure has been
billed, can cause problems of fraud. 4.
Negligent audits Chart audits are known to help
track all parts of a claim and ensure that they
are billed correctly. Due to the friendly
atmosphere at the family physicians clinic,
often even if a procedure or test has been
canceled, the filled forms go ahead, even though
it could be a human error. This often gets
physicians into cases of fraud, something that
may not have intended to do. But often, due to
unbundling, where services are billed separately
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5 Common Mistakes Physicians Commit with their
Family Practice Billing
instead of being billed under a single charge,
and careless chart audits are conducted, can cost
the practice dearly. 5. Under billing Medical
billers working in physicians offices often are
not aware of the billing rules for services
that Non-physician Practitioners (NPPs) perform.
Also, awareness and understanding of the
incident-to-billing rules and shared visit
regulations by physicians are very essential if
and when hiring NPPs, as if not billed to
Medicare then physicians can lose nearly 85 of
the scheduled fee a major loss of revenue that
they cannot afford. Outsource your Family
Practice Billing Family Practices Medical
Billing Outsourcing allows your practice or
physicians to have the most efficient and
accurate bill processing possible. To help avoid
such simple but expensive mistakes, it is wise
that the billers and coders are thoroughly
trained or look for a medical billing
company that is updated with the latest codes and
regulations to help faster reimbursements and
avoid fraudulent cases. To know more about our
Family Practice Billing and Coding Services, call
us at 888-357-3226 or email us at info_at_medicalbil
lersandcoders.com.
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5 Common Mistakes Physicians Commit with their
Family Practice Billing
FAQs 1. Why is it important to verify patient
insurance before each visit? Insurance status can
change, and without verification, claims may be
denied if the patients coverage isnt active on
the service date. 2. How do small inaccuracies
affect family practice billing? Errors like
misspelled names or incorrect diagnosis codes can
lead to claim denials or delayed payments,
affecting revenue. 3. What are common coding
issues in family practice billing? Handwritten
coding can be misinterpreted, and outdated codes
may lead to denials. Upcoding can also cause
issues, including potential fraud. 4. How does
underbilling impact revenue? If services by
Non-physician Practitioners arent billed
correctly, family practices may lose up to 85 of
potential reimbursement.
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5 Common Mistakes Physicians Commit with their
Family Practice Billing
5. Why should family practices consider
outsourcing billing? Outsourcing ensures billing
is accurate and up-to-date with regulations,
helping avoid costly errors and increasing timely
reimbursements.