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Tag: Payment Posting

Payment Posting Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

by [email protected]

Almost all practices struggle with it payment posting and find it hard to balance their time and effort between payment posting and other processes in RCM while managing the important needs of the practice. But payment posting is not something that can be negotiated or ignored as it is one of the crucial elements for the smooth flow of your revenue cycle. It provides a brief overview of your practice’s financial health. With proper management, your payment posting process can be made easier and smoother.

So, what exactly is payment posting?

It is a process in dental revenue cycle management wherein the payment details are logged into the patient system to give the practice a broad perspective of all the payment information and explains how different payers’ collections work. It helps in gaining a better understanding of your practice’s day-to-day financial status and aids in enhancing your cash flow.

The payment posting cycle starts just after the submission of claims to the insurance providers. The practice then waits for the decision of the insurance providers. They may pay for claims or reject them. In either case, the practice receives an E.O.B (explanation of benefits) from the payer. If the claim has been accepted, the payer sends the payment amount via check or EFT along with the E.O.B. The process of payment posting ends when the payment or denial details are settled under the patient’s account. Remember, understanding the financial picture of your practice can help you identify income leakage and take fast action to fix it.

Payment posting processes

Patient payments

All patient payments, including co-pays, deductibles, and payments from those without insurance, need to be documented for proper payment posting. Payments are deposited in the bank and reconciled with the practice’s general ledger to ensure that they match what was recorded in the practice’s management system.

Patient payment responsibilities

Important patient responsibilities, such as co-pays, non-covered services, and so on, must be identified and communicated to the patient right at the beginning. This helps in making the payments flow faster and in avoiding any misunderstanding related to financial obligations.

Balancing write-offs

The specific levels for write-offs and modifications for each client should be indicated in the process of payment posting in detail. Any requests for deviations must be acknowledged without delay, and the necessary steps need to be taken to prevent revenue loss.

Denial posting

Claim denial information must be posted into the patient’s practice management system based on which the write-off decisions can be made. Also, based on this information, necessary actions such as billing the secondary payer, transferring the balance to the patient account, making adjustments/write-offs as per defined policies, and routing the denied claims to appropriate work queues can be taken.

Payment Posting: Do You Really Need It? 

by [email protected]

Payment posting is one of the significant yet confusing processes in the RCM cycle. It is the process of entering payment details into the patient system, thereby helping in viewing different patient payments as well as the practice’s overall financial picture. This provides the practice with a chance to identify the issues or errors within the payment cycle and fix them as soon as possible. Any errors in payment posting can cause a huge mishap that can disturb the entire revenue cycle process, leading to denial of claims. In such cases, both the time and effort of your staff are wasted as they must take extra efforts to rectify the errors in denied or delayed payments. Clearly, payment posting is not something to be ignored or negotiated on, as it is one of the crucial steps in the RCM process which can help in making your payment cycle easier and more efficient.

But what exactly is the role of payment posting in RCM?

Resolves RCM glitches

When a payment is posted in a patient’s system, it gives the practice a chance to analyze the revenue cycle, identifying the various errors and coming up with ideas for improvement. Additionally, it offers an overview of the finances, including patient payments, that aids in identifying revenue leakage for an easier and smoother payment process. The various problems in your revenue cycle management can be resolved through a well-managed payment posting system, thus preventing the claims from getting denied.

Handles denials

Most claim denials occur because of errors in the submitted claims. It is always better to have a system to track claims for a quicker and more effective correction of errors. Payment posting provides just that; it helps you keep track of each claim till it gets paid, as unresolved denials can lead to huge revenue loss. With payment posting, you have all the relevant information with you, making it easier to take the next step in case there is a claim denial, such as making a correction on a claim, asking the patient for further details about their insurance policy, or contacting the insurance providers for further clarification. This makes the resubmission of denied claims much quicker and easier.

Strengthens the RCM

By identifying and helping solve the various issues related to RCM, payment posting can greatly improve the growth of your dental revenue cycle management. With well-managed payment posting, you can identify weak points in your revenue cycle and find ways to strengthen them, increasing revenue at your practice. The payment posting process makes sure that the RCM-related issues are dealt with quickly and that the overall revenue of the practice is unaffected.

Solving Recurring Issues

Payment posting can help you identify the recurring issues in managing the payment cycle. Since it helps you to keep tabs on the various information related to the payment process, it will be easier for your practice to notice continually recurring errors. And in turn, coming up with solutions to fix the same, thereby improving the revenue cycle.

Managing write-offs and adjustments

Payment posting helps you process write-offs and adjustments in patient payments as well as in reporting if any odd contractual adjustments are found. And if any such odd adjustments are found, your practice will have the opportunity to take steps to prevent the same from happening again, creating a reliable and secure payment cycle. This makes your payment cycle much smoother and less complex.

Getting patient payments faster

Payment posting allows you to provide inputs on non-covered services and co-payment collection issues so that patients are aware of their payment options and are not caught off guard by unexpected out-of-pocket payments. Locating any such balances and transferring them to patients’ accounts early on helps ensure a quicker patient payment without any complexities or confusion.

Increasing profit and reducing claim reimbursement time

A well-managed payment posting system can help your practice find opportunities to boost its revenue by observing the daily trends within your dental practice. Beyond that, payment posting can act as a perfect opportunity to make the whole payment cycle efficient by speeding up your claim reimbursement time. Focusing on payment posting helps identify problems within the outset of the claim process itself, thus speeding up the entire payment process. The use of up-to-date data through payment posting shortens the time needed to process insurance claims, thus securing timely claim payments. This can also help in rectifying any issues in your dental revenue cycle management before they become critical and disturb your entire payment cycle, thus leading to an improvement in financial performance as well as faster claim reimbursement.