Leverage your revenue cycle management vendor's tools to perform claim status inquiries before contacting the payer directly.
Linda Perryclear, Director of Field Services-RCM Client Experience, Availity (Jacksonville, Fla.): In many cases you will get the information you need to finish the claim's cycle. In other cases, you may not always get the information that you need but it will typically put you in a path closer to resolution in a more efficient manner. Cost savings for this is significant, as outlined in the 2014 CAQH Index, which showed the provider cost of a manual claim status inquiry to be $2.87 versus $1.64 for an electronic transaction — a savings of $1.23 per transaction.
If you would like to share your RCM best practices, please email Carrie Pallardy at cpallardy@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in the "RCM tip of the day" series.