Home Health & Hospice Week

Be proactive -- not reactive -- to accounts receivable changes. Many billing changes have hit home care providers in recent years, and many more are on tap in future months, particularly for hospice providers. Home care providers are putting more pressure than ever on their billing staffs to collect every cent available to them. But providers should switch their focus from being reactive to Medicare changes and instead become proactive by creating efficient billing procedures. Follow these three tips to make sure your billers are tracking the right numbers. 1. Review financial measurements. You may think your accounts receivable (A/R) department is running at 100 percent efficiency, but when is the last time you reviewed the processes? When Medicare pay appears poised to drop, providers try to immediately focus on improving their A/R, but this should be an ongoing goal, says David J. Zetter with Zetter Healthcare Management Consultants in Mechanicsburg, Pa. [...]