Pediatric Coding Alert

Chart your A/R and other billing variables to ensure you don't leave money in your insurer's hands.If your practice has never charted a year's worth of financial data, you don't know which factors affect your cash-flow trends.To examine your accounts receivable (A/R) activity in-depth, you should chart your data. Use these five steps to ensure you aren't bleeding money.1. Chart four key billing variables monthly: Payments, charges, closing A/R and adjustments. You can obtain these four variables easily from your monthly reports. They're useful because they serve as basic cash-flow indicators. One good strategy is to chart the entire previous year using the numbers from monthly reports. Then, as you add to the chart each month, you'll be able to spot changes that can indicate problems or other influencing factors.2. Analyze the peaks and dips in your chart. Some fluctuation is normal because of a pediatrician on vacation or a [...]