Payment posting is considered to be a very simple task in medical billing but it is the fundamental and most important step in billing and overall revenue cycle management. It helps a practice to promptly identify a potential issue and correct it at an early stage so as to save time and avoid inconvenience.
An organized payment posting process helps in increasing revenues, resolves repeating or recurring issues at early stages, and helps in improving overall performance as well as the efficiency of a practice. It also impacts overall patient satisfaction.
Importance of payment posting in the medical billing process
A medical billing process deals with a large number of claims and processes many bills in a single day so some issues are bound to arise. Payment posting when done in an organized manner helps in managing problems that might arise due to a wrong entry or calculation at an early stage. It reduces the issues like denials, identifies non-covered services and services which need prior authorization and informs the patient about the same. This also helps in speeding the patient billing and payment process. It saves time and eliminates the chances of error thus making the billing process smoother.
Here are a few ways in which payment posting can help in Medical billing:
Analyzing revenue cycle: Payment postings are done using electronic software and once the payment postings are done accurately to a patient’s account it gives a picture of accounts information, covered services, and payments to be received. Thus managing the revenue cycle in an organized manner.
Prevents recurring problems: Payment postings involve adjusting the postings and identifying problems that might have happened in the past and led to delayed payments. It helps you to resolve any such problem and prevent recurring problems.
Helps in denial management: Payment posting helps in finding any potential denial posting and helps in resolving the denial reason at a very early stage and thus managing denials and delayed payments.
Speeds up secondary payments: Payment posting helps in identifying any secondary claims which can then be created and submitted. When all insurance payments are received and accounts are adjusted the remaining patient responsibility can be efficiently billed.
EOB and ERA posting and reconcilement – Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) is an explanation of the insurance processing sent to the provider while the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) provides the patient with an explanation of the claim process and any patient responsibilities such as co-insurance, deductible, and co-payments. Accurate payment postings ensure that data from both EOB’s and ERAs match payments and provide an effective view of financial position in a practice.
So we can say that payment posting helps a practice in effective revenue cycle management. It maintains better cash flow, spots problems at early stages, quickly addresses billing issues, and helps the entire medical billing process to run smoothly. For any solution related to medical billing and coding, you can use Medphine as it offers specialized services in an effective manner.
