Practice Management Alert

Big surprise: Thorough documentation can prevent a lot of claims headaches.

The last issue of Practice Management Alert covered some ways you may be accidentally setting up your practice for denials. Here are some more tips to try and curb denials before they even happen.

Denials have been steadily increasing since 2016, says Holly Ridge, BSN, RN, CPC, CPMA, manager of medical necessity and authorization denials for Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina.

Remember: Coders are specialists, and knowledge of persnickety details is crucial to success. “There are people in the office that don’t understand that if there are seven characters required, that there may be placeholders needed for the fifth and sixth character to get that to a D or S,” said Jennifer Swindle, RHIT, CCS, CCS-P, CDIP, CPC, CIC, CPMA, CFPC, CEMC, AAPC Fellow, in a presentation titled “Top Denials and how to work them effectively and prevent them in the future” at AAPC’s 2023 virtual REVCON.

Beware of Ripple Effects

Sometimes, denials happen because too many dominoes fall. Having a set-in-stone, comprehensive policy of verifying patient insurance can forestall a host of denials.

One of the most common times you’ll see a timely filing denial is when you file to the wrong payer, Swindle says.

For example, a claim may get denied because it wasn’t filed in a timely fashion — but then you find out that, actually, the claim was filed with a payer that no longer covers the patient. So, by the time the billing staff figures out what went wrong, the claim submission to the correct, current payer is no longer timely.

Remember, payers set their own rules about when claims must be filed, so youyou’re your billing staff) need to keep the rules straight for each respective payer — and claim.

In this situation, some payers may provide a little grace, if you can produce some proof.

If you can produce documentation proving that the claim was sent and received by a payer within the allowed timeframe, that gives you “a little bit more leg to stand on, to show, ‘hey, we did our job and we got this out the door,’” Swindle said.

It’s crucial to make sure you’re monitoring the claims you submit, because some timely filing denials may be your responsibility, even if you got them out the door on time and to the correct payer.

“Sometimes payers say, ‘We didn’t get a claim.’ You sent it, you’ve got records in your system, you show where the claim was generated — but they never received it. If they didn’t receive it, and you get a timely filing denial, that’s still on you, because they didn’t have it. So, you want to really monitor those,” Swindle warned.

Beware The Foibles of Hard Copies

While a lot of payers accept claims electronically, some providers and payers use hard copies. Mailing records involves several situations where things can go wrong and result in a denial.

Swindle suggests says people submitting paper claims and receiving denials on those claims should check these data points:

• Are you sending things to the right address?
• Is it going to the right department at that address?
• Does the right person receive it, who can and will advance the claim to the next step in the process?

If you have a payer that routinely says they’re not receiving claim submissions, consider sending some claims via certified mail. “I certainly don’t recommend that you send everything certified. It can get very cost prohibitive if you’re doing it on everything you’re sending,” Swindle said.

If you don’t have that certified mail signature as evidence, it’s almost impossible to prove that you mailed a claim, she explained.

Understand How Situations are Affected by Modifiers

Modifiers can impact many facets of documentation, but their impact on the revenue cycle may be outsized. “Modifiers can be a problem if they’re overused, misused, or not used. All have a different risk,” Swindle said.

Reporting a service without a correct modifier may lead to denials with explanations like the service being inclusive with another service, services integral to another service, services bundled, services not payable with another service.

A working knowledge of appropriate modifier usage, including being aware of any National Correct Coding Institute (NCCI) edits, is crucial for getting claims paid. And remember, even in situations where a modifier is allowed, it may still not be appropriate, but any modifier usage can and should be supported by documentation.