Payment posting in medical billing has turned out to be one of the most obvious demanding situations that the network of healthcare service providers face on a rather common basis. Payment posting is often misunderstood as an afterthought after the more “enormous” a part of the revenue cycle process is accomplished. Contrary to popular misconception, accurate posting contributes to one of the most critical functions in the revenue cycle management of any practice.
What exactly is Payment Posting?
Payment posting, in layman’s terms, refers to the method of logging details of payments into the medical billing software program allowing us a view of the insurance payments in explanation of benefits (EOBs), payments from patients and insurance checks from electronic remittance advice (ERAs). In a nutshell, payment posting allows you to get a 360 degree view of the financial picture of your practice.
Payment posting is largely seen as the preliminary blockhouse against common payer issues and makes the whole process a lot more smoother for everyone involved; right from the front office to the back office workforce. Additionally, it allows you to effectively discover and control revenue leaks within the practice. It consequently becomes paramount that the payment posting process is performed with the highest level of accuracy. How the process of payment posting is performed has an extensive impact on efficiency, patient care, and overall financial growth of any practice. It is for this reason no surprise that payment posting is considered one of the most crucial elements of the revenue cycle management process.
Types of Payment Posting:
Depending upon the level of insurance coverage, payment posting in medical billing is mostly carried out in two ways:
Manual Posting:
Manual posting is performed by the administrative workforce in a practice and typically takes a longer time. Payment information is drawn and captured from scanned pictures of explanation of benefit (EOB) documents and each line item is posted to the respective patient accounts. Considering the fact that this is a manual task, there is an inflated risk of common errors, which causes an overall delay in the procedure.
Automated Posting:
Automated posting is considered more of a software-driven approach to the posting process, which is in sharp contrast to the traditional payment posting methods. In comparison to manual posting, automated posting helps speed up the medical billing process while allowing you to efficiently process payment information. This makes it a highly preferred approach to payment posting.
What is it that makes payment posting such a crucial process in RCM?
Quite simply, it is the fact that a well carried out payment posting process can help you identify and make the most of the opportunities that could potentially increase revenue by observing the daily trends within your practice. There is absolutely no denying the fact that payment posting is a very crucial process to revenue cycle management.
So here comes the big question: How critical is payment posting for your practice?
Payment posting is the most critical part of the medical billing process as it enables the practice to monitor its incoming revenue. When the process of payment posting is efficiently streamlined and properly organized, it essentially helps in detecting all types of issues and resolving those issues quickly.
A proper payment posting process in place can help you in the following ways:
Analysis of revenue cycle made easy
A proper payment posting process in place facilitates analysis of the revenue cycle in practices in a more seamless manner. This in turn, helps in maximization of revenue cycle by improving the profitability and the functions of the account receivable departments.
Reduced recurrent issues
The key to reducing recurring issues is by carefully observing and identifying the underlying pattern. It is when you identify recurring denials is when you can prevent future claims getting denied for the same reason.
Enhance your existing process
Resolution of concurrent issues is never sufficient. It is very crucial for the administration to circle back and provide more focus on solutions to enhance the precision and efficacy of the revenue cycle. This helps in strengthening the existing process.
Denial tracking and reduced denial resolution time
The most effective way to reduce denial resolution time is by preventing them. The longer the denials remain unresolved, the more it contributes to the overall accounts receivable days. Efficient denial tracking allows for efficient follow ups on the denied claims and helps quickly recognize the prime reason which has caused the denial.
Accurate claims submissions
Accurate posting allows submission of correct claims to the secondary and tertiary payers by making sure primary payment is posted correctly. This in turn, reduces the margin of mistakes throughout billing, for secondary and tertiary payers, due to which, a reduction in the denial of claims is observed.
In an effort to sum all of it up, a proper payment posting system can elevate the overall efficiency and infrastructure of a practice. Streamlining the payment posting process is an effective way of enhancing the revenue cycle management (RCM) process especially as the process impacts many other A/R functions of the practice. Problems associated with billing may be addressed quicker, secondary payers are billed accurately and patients receive their statements promptly, increasing the overall medical billing cycle’s efficiency. In short, it is a win-win for all.
