Is your practice good about sending out patient statements on a regular basis? Do you have a process in place that ensures your patient accounts receivable is under control? If patient statements are a struggle for your practice, you might consider using an outside service. For example, if your clearinghouse is TriZetto, they can do your patient statements cheaper than you can usually do it in-house! You still have to review patient balances and upload a file, but then TriZetto takes over from there, saving you tons of time from mundane tasks like stuffing envelopes and running postage. Whatever your routine, having a good process in place for patient statements ensures you won’t miss out on money owed your practice!

We all know that HMO plans won’t pay for medical care without a referral, but you’d be surprised how often we get denials from insurance companies because the office saw the patient for medical care and no one got a referral. How can you avoid this? Always check the patient’s card! If it says “HMO” or has a primary care physician (PCP) listed, then the plan requires a referral for medical eye care.  Many of your insurance contracts put the burden for obtaining a referral on the provider, and the EOB shows the denial as a contractual write off. Even if your contract doesn’t stipulate and it’s your office’s policy that patients are responsible for getting all referrals, a courtesy reminder to patients can go a long way in gaining goodwill and saving the patient from a large bill they didn’t expect.