Medical Coding and Billing: A Beginner’s Guide
medical billing process steps

Medical billing is a crucial but often time-consuming task for healthcare providers. The amount of time it takes to complete billing tasks can vary depending on the size and complexity of the provider’s practice. Some tasks, like coding diagnoses and procedures, can be completed relatively quickly. Others, like submitting claims to insurance companies, can take much longer.

Point of service collections are key to medical billing, in that they reduce the expense of patient balance follow-up and help to avoid bad debt and write-offs. From patient registration to statement follow-up, this guide unveils the intricacies of Neolytix’s expertise, seamlessly integrating technology and industry best practices. When patients receive a statement in a way that is easy for them to pay and the statement is clear on what is owed, collecting payments becomes much easier. Ask patients their preference for receiving a statement and enable them to make payments using whatever method is most convenient for them. Once you’ve sorted out your important KPIs, you can create reports to track and optimize the workings of your practice—including your medical billing workflow. If you want your practice to function as smoothly as possible, it’s important to determine what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) matter to you.

Review/File Claims

If the provider uses an EHR and practice management system, the encounter form will likely be electronic. An encounter form, also called a superbill or fee ticket, is a form generated for each patient encounter. Printed with patient demographics added, the form consists of a list of common services (including their medical codes), as well as an area for clinicians to note diagnoses. Medical coding and billing is an essential component of healthcare administration in a variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, and private practices. Your recordings, during this stage of the medical billing process, need to be transcribed — and later formatted. All information needs to be verified, wrong data corrected and, ultimately, things that might hurt the claim need to be examined.

Individual medical coders develop a detailed understanding of the procedures and commonality of their specific clinic or facility. Coders occasionally encounter a difficult note requiring in-depth research, taking more time to code correctly. Even among the more commonly used codes are significant gray areas open for examination among coders. With very complex or unusual cases, coding guidelines may be confusing to interpret. This cycle of reading, note taking, assigning codes, and computer entry repeats with each chart. The main task of a medical coder is to review clinical statements and assign standard codes using CPT®, ICD-10-CM, and HCPCS Level II classification systems.

Who Performs Medical Billing Tasks?

Make sure you explain the medical billing process to your patient carefully, create bills that are easy to read and understand, and clearly lay out all the payment options you provide. Elation provides revenue cycle management software for independent practices of all sizes. Our integrated medical billing solution allows you to maximize your revenue so you can focus on your patients. Use a tool that can automate medical billing process steps the population of medical codes across platforms, so you only need to input them once in the medical billing cycle. In order to make your medical billing process run smoothly, it’s important to understand the steps of the medical billing cycle clearly, so you can find billing tools that work for you. When it comes to the medical billing process one of the most important steps is deficiency management.

medical billing process steps

You may want to track the total number of new patient starts, revenue by provider, or revenue per procedure, for example. A rejected claim means the insurance company found an error with your claim. At this point, the insurance provider will reuse the claim, check whether the treatments or procedures are present, and either authorize or reject it.

How AI Medical Scribes are Streamlining Transcription for Physicians

During this step insurance information is also collected, this includes collecting the patient’s policy number and the name of their insurance provider. Make sure the reason for the visit is clear, any diagnoses are included, prescriptions listed, and so on. Not only will this help your coding/billing team, but it will also give your patient a more robust medical history for later use. Even if it’s a regular patient, double-check key bits of information (address, phone number, insurance, etc.) to make sure the file is completely up to date. Confirming an address or date of birth from the start will ensure new information is included in the correct patient’s file.