Increasing billing in a changing health-care environment

The always changing health-care regulations present plenty of challenges – but also opportunities – for physicians to increase their billings, thanks to the new health-care reform law which includes coverage for a number of preventive care services.

Every January, patients’ annual deductibles rise. Often, this stands in the way of patients seeking care, as they don’t want to pay out of pocket for services they don’t consider urgent, such as preventative care. As a result, many practices see a reduction in revenue during the first quarter of every year.

With new health-care regulations, insurers are required to cover, at 100 percent, with no deductible, a number of services, including preventive care, routine screenings (including mammograms, colonoscopies, and cholesterol testing), and routine immunizations.

Many patients, however, may not know they can obtain these services at no cost to them. It’s your responsibility, then, to reach out to patients and remind them that these services are fully covered and encourage them to make appointments.

During slow times for your medical practice, it makes sense to develop reports that identify patients for whom these preventive services are covered. Once these reports are developed, the hard work is done, and you can run them monthly or quarterly to jump-start a patient outreach program.

With more and more patients responsible for a larger share of their healthcare expenses, using technology to create these reports and show patients how they can get more for their money is a good way for you to increase billings and improve revenues.

While you could create reports by hand, this would be time consuming. Working with a program like gloCare can help you not only track patient information, but also develop reports. If you are looking for a complete practice management solution, gloCare may be the perfect fit. Contact us today to learn more about it.