The minute you complete your audiology service to a patient, there’s a countdown timer that starts. Did you know that? You get 259,200 seconds to get the claim done.
Submitting claims to any Third Party Payer needs to be accurate and timely.
The day to day of the practice gets in the way, and claims either are forgotten, pushed to the back of the stack- or just plain old procrastination sets in. We’ve been there!
Timeliness usually means no longer than 6 months old(that’s the 259,200 seconds btw)
The good news, is that we have been able to settle older claims (up to a year, in a lot of instances) to be paid on the original amount. The longer the time from the original date of service, the less likely it is that these claims will be processed or paid. A sense of urgency is needed.
If these claims are not processed or paid, it’s usually the practice that pays the bill. That’s right- YOU are then paying the bill (often through write off) for patients to come to your practice and receive their hearing health care.
One of our favorite sayings around our office is that every service/claim is paid: by the patient, by the insurance company, or by the practice , itself!!!
Get your older claims and refiled claims paid by patients or insurance companies so you aren’t paying them yourself!