Wiki staffing questions

[arrana]

Do you work in a medium sized multi-specialty physician practice as a coder/biller (as in you do both)? If so, I have a couple of questions for you:
How many providers do you have? How many coder/billers? How many people in the billing dept (payment poster, collector, etc.)?
How many claims do you make in a day, what is involved in your process?
What other duties do you have on a daily basis?

Thanks for your input.

Arrana Ashton, CPC, CEMC

 

[daedolos]

Orthopedics - 2 offices

5 doctors

2 coders

2 billers

6 billing staff members

40 claims averaged per office per day (I do the office coding. The other coder does the surgeries.)

I code daily on dictations and also followup on errors found on fee tickets and dictations. Essentially, I am auditing while coding. I also follow up on Group 3 and 4 claims for PPO, HMO, and Medicare secondary accounts as well as maintain all the workman comp claims. There is usually a bit of auditing done there as well. I also have to receive and make calls to from adjustors/claim reps/payors as well as file appeals and/or greivances. Occasionally, patients call wanting to find out or pay for outstanding bills or just to understand why they have patient responsibility though they have two insurances.

Peace
@_*
It's a daily grind. I find the coding part soothing compared to the customer service aspects. I find getting old claims paid very rewarding as it is like detective work.

 

[arrana]

Thanks for your response!
Do you feel like your staffing is adequate?
Do your billers check eligibility and benefits, or is there front desk staff for that?

Sorry to have so many questions. We're trying to figure some things out, and can't find quality or comparable benchmarks.

Thanks again!

 

[daedolos]

There are two front desk people per location and two call centers staffed with 5 people total to do scheduling and patient intake and resolving other issues like rescheduling and reordering X-rays as well as authorizations and such. There is a dedicated surgery scheduler and a workman's comp scheduler. The stuff that falls between the cracks usually ends up in the billing department as claims being denied. The fun/horror is finding out who made the mistake. More likely than not, the error is in-house and not an insurance mistake. All it takes is a keyed-in error or a misscheduled appointment and now a claim is denied for incorrect data or an expired auth.

Peace
@_*
The fault really lies in ourselves, not in the stars.