# AR follow up calls



## Metroderm (Feb 11, 2019)

I need to set a goal for the AR staffs and I would like to know how many calls other office makes per day.
We used to use billing service just for AR follow ups and they called 25-35 calls per day(8 hours) per person.
I wasn't happy and didn't renew the service.
Of course, I don't want to set the goal too high.  
How many calls does your office staffs make for follow up per day?


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## nhavens@wakemed.org (Feb 12, 2019)

*Re AR follow up calls*

Good morning,
I'm in accounts receivables and I'm on the phone most of the day, you have to factor in the amount of time each call make take such as the hold times, which can take at least 10-15 per call.  Hope this helps


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## clg23 (Feb 12, 2019)

that would depend on what insurances you are calling.  For example you can find out the status of claims online for most insurances but you must sign up. That alone should cut out being on the phone. Most software allow you to do appeals online as well.  Carefirst on the other hand can be very time consuming.  So i would call or sit with whomever is assign to a specific insurance to see how long it will take and then make a decision from there.  

hope that helped.


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## nhavens@wakemed.org (Feb 12, 2019)

Yes the insurance portals are extremely helpful I use them everyday but still find myself calling the insurance companies on harder claims that need person to person contact to talk through for maximum adjudication.


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## haraml7 (Feb 12, 2019)

*follow up*

I would say 10 to 15 calls per day for me. if the right questions are asked for better understanding of the denial then spending more time on the phone with less calls is progress for me personally. I prefer quality not quantity. I want to call the insurance find out why they denied for and fix it! Most of the time the EOB states exactly what is wrong with the claim. The EOB is a hint for me to research the denial reason. 

A/ R follow up experience of 10 years 
Misty, cpc -a. coc-a


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## JCaillouet (Feb 13, 2019)

Having spent most of the six years in A/R: 

Review your mix of payers. Ask staff to see which requires phone calls for follow thorough. A mix of 20% of productivity on calls and 80% via portal might be your best bet


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## shomeyj12 (Feb 14, 2019)

Our company standards are 12-60 Status Checks per hour or 3-12 Appeals Pending Claims per hour. We define 'status checks' as claims that solely need a follow up on the status of the claim via phone call or website. Considering most of our payers have online access for this, at a minimum we expect if our employees are working for 8 hours, they should be able to check the status of 96 claims per day. 

Of course we take into consideration phone calls that may take much longer, but we also expect that our employees can check the status of other claims online while they are on hold. 

Hope this helps.


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## suki_26 (Feb 19, 2019)

*dificult to narrow down to how many calls in a day*

I've been doing AR for about 11 years.  Some days I am on the phone all day, some days I don't need to make any calls at all. 

I think it has been said before but it really depends on who you are calling. We know certain insurance companies MUST be called in the morning or you will not get through. Its not uncommon for us to be on a United healthcare call for 45 minutes or more.  Once you make it through the automated systems then you have to hope you get a customer service rep that even knows what they are talking about. It has become very frustrating!!

We have found its all about time management. AR isn't like sending out claims  where you can expect to bill so many in a day. A simple corrected claim could be done within your software or even online for some of the insurance companies and those are quick. There are other claims where  you really need  to carve out time to handle and "argue" with the reps. If you cant be helped by the rep and you have to ask for a supervisor, be prepared to be on hold even longer.  If they then disconnect you while waiting for that supervisor..... now you're back to square one.


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