Collecting Old Receivables Can Lead to Major Cash Recovery

Though claims denials are on the rise, professionals estimate that around 65 percent of denied insurance claims are never collected. Many providers and facilities don’t bother collecting old receivables and instead focus on new bills.

However, with reimbursements shrinking, every claim counts. Simply writing off claims leaves a lot of money, sometimes millions of dollars in bad debt, on the table that you’ve earned. Despite the time and effort required, it may be cost effective to find ways to collect these claims.

If you have old receivables, many of which are 90 days or older, you still have options to collect that money. You can:

Hire an Outside Consultant

Your billing team may be overwhelmed with current and outdated claims. They may not have time to do all the work required to collect old receivables, which includes frequent, time-consuming communication with the insurer.

Third party billing companies, such as Datapro, can take the stress off your billing team while ensuring you collect as much money, old and new, as possible. Depending on your billing situation, hiring a third party billing company may actually make you money.

Write an Appeal

You have the right to appeal any claims decision that payors make, both with the insurer and with the state. Your billing team can write these claims or you can use a third party company to help collect denied claims.

Winning an appeal can take time and effort, but can lead to much better revenue in the end. With the right preparation and right appeals letter, you can ensure you receive payment for the services you’ve provided.

Create Billing Team Roles

If you want to pursue a zero-percent write-off strategy and collect more old receivables, it may be beneficial to assign certain roles to members of your billing team. Some members may focus only on new claims, while a smaller team focuses on collecting underpaid or denied claims.

This may allow your old receivables team to really focus on denied claims and uncover errors that are leading to the denials, such as incorrect coding or typos. It also helps them stay on top of appeals, develop claims collection processes, and keep in close communication with the insurance company, speeding up the appeal process and increasing how much revenue your collect.

When Should You Pursue Aged Claims

Collecting old receivables takes both time and money. However, it may be beneficial for your facility if:

• More than 25 percent of your accounts receivables are more than 60 days old

• You don’t have a process in place for addressing claims denials

• You don’t have anyone appealing claims denials by sending in appeal letters or medical records.

These are signs that you are probably missing out on a lot of cash that you are owed. It is likely worth your time and effort to try to collect old receivables.

At Datapro billing, we can help you collect old claims and better train your staff to avoid or appeal claims denials in the future. Contact us to discuss how we can help you recover cash and improve your bottom line.