9 Tips for Physical Therapy Clinics to Maximize Billing

Billing is often touted as the bane of many physical therapists’ existence. Ideally, PTs would see, treat, and improve the lives of the patients while payment for their services would be as simple as a normal transaction. Unfortunately, physical therapy billing is anything but simple. But there are a few things you can do to maximize your payments and simplify the billing process.

Set goals

Physical therapists tend to be goal-oriented. After all, treatment plans are usually centered around a specific goal. Well, it’s time to take that goal-centric attitude over to the billing process. Start by setting a specific goal. For example, you could set a goal to decrease the percentage of accounts receivable (A/R) greater than 90 days to 10%. Or maybe you’d like to send new claims to the appropriate carrier within two business days. No matter the goals you set, be sure to communicate them to your staff so everyone knows how they can help achieve the goals.

Track progress

Once you’ve set goals for your clinic, you need to measure your progress. Check your data regularly — at least on a monthly basis — to monitor how your clinic is doing. Then, compare your metrics month-to-month to learn what is working and what needs to change. You should be monitoring:

• Chargers, payments, and adjustments
• A/R
• Total reimbursement for all carriers
• Total reimbursement for your top five carriers
• Provider and facility patient volume

Increase efficiency

No one wants to spend more time on billing than they have to, but it’s critical your reimbursements are correct. To increase efficiency, attempt the following:

• Submit claims electronically if the option exists
• Submit claims promptly, or as close to the actual date of service as possible
• Track how long it takes to receive payment for your services. If you’re waiting longer than six weeks, something in the process needs to change.

Educate your staff, patients, and yourself on insurance

Verifying insurance is a critical part of the patient check-in process. Make sure you trust the person in your clinic handling this task, and that they know this process inside and out. Insurance verification is how you determine that a patient has valid coverage and that their coverage will pay for the services your clinic provides.

It’s also important to determine the number of visits the patient has coverage for and their rate of coverage. Essentially, you should know how you’ll receive payment from the patient before their course of care begins. By clarifying what’s expected of your patients before you begin treating them, you’ll avoid a number of billing and collection problems in the future.