Registration / Front Desk

To ensure seamless financial operations, it is crucial that you and all users are trained on the essential Best Practices for the Scheduling, Registration, and Front Desk functions.

Prioritizing the front end of the Revenue Cycle has a significant effect on the final outcomes and your practice's capacity to receive payment for all services.

The Job Scheduler can be used to automate many of these tasks.

Improve Registration Quality and Collections

• Verify benefits and eligibility 24-48 hours before the Appointment.

• All Patients should have one default Insurance Profile or be marked Self Pay.
• The patient should be stopped during front desk check-in or before if:

• The Patient is not eligible.
• Their coverage was terminated or inaccurate.
• There is a Collection Balance on Account.

• Patient Identification: Verify each time the Patient arrives. For example, is your address still XXX Main St.
• Identify Workman's Compensation:

• Paperwork should be reviewed and the Case added.
• Confirm the Case is assigned to the appointment.

• Collect the Payment for all Patient Responsibility amounts at the time of service.
• Patients who fail to attend their scheduled Appointments should be marked as NO SHOW.

Daily Reports and Actions

Daily Reports

Reference Batch

• Reconcile Receipts per cash drawer.
• Reconcile Charges.
• Close Reference Batches after the Daily Reference Batch Report has been reviewed by the User. This serves as a sign-off by the User.
• Some clients prefer to have separate Reference Batches for:

• Each User
• Refunds
• Claims Corrections
• ERA Payment Posting
• Manually Posted Payments
• Charges

Encounter by Status

• Review and work (correct and resubmit) Clearinghouse Rejected, Payer Rejected, and Local Edit Errors.

Receipt Management

• Use as a bank deposit reconciliation.

Daily Sheets

• Use to check all financial activity for the day (such as charges and receipts).

Daily Actions

• Open Reference Batches to manage financial transactions.

• Review and Close at the end of the day.

• Manually Batch and Upload Statements.

• Manage Clearinghouse and Payer Rejections.

• Use the Job Scheduler to run Statement Batches automatically.

• Post Manual Insurance and Patient Payments upon receiving.
• Post ERA on the Received Date.

• Post Medicare Payments first.

• Review your Custom Worklists and the Denial Worklist.
• Verify that there are no unmapped charges to resolve if the Charges are automatically generated from your clinical documentation.

Weekly Reports and Actions

Weekly Reports

Interactive Aging

• Work this report for current Outstanding Insurance Balances (A/R).

• Outstanding Patient Balances are also shown on this report.

• The Interactive Aging button is located on the Home Dashboard.

Unresolved Claims Report

• Use this report as a call list for balances to Insurance.
• Filters can be used to search for specific Insurance, Balance, Aging, Percentage, etc.

Aging by Patient

• This report is used for working Outstanding Patient Balances and Credit Balances and can also be used for managing Insurance Balances.
• Responsibility Date: The date that the party became responsible for the balance.

• For non Self-Pay Patients, it is the date the balance was transferred to the Patient.
• If the Patient is Self-Pay, the Responsibility Date is when the charge was posted.

Missing Encounters

• Use this as a check and balance if you are using the Calendar.

• Question: If the Patient kept an Appointment, do we have an Encounter (charge) in our system?

Weekly Actions

• Upload files before 1:00 PM EST. Best days to upload are Monday-Thursday, to avoid delays over the weekend. Review the Statement errors in the Address Corrections - Needs Changed / Do Not Mail panel.
• Review RCM reports such as Interactive aging, Unresolved claims, and Aging by Patient.

  Some smaller practices may prefer to send Statements on a monthly schedule.

Monthly Reports and Actions

Monthly Reports

Receipts Management

• Use as an audit for receipts received, payments posted, and any money in escrow.
• Make sure all Insurance escrow is posted before you run end-of-period reports.
• Reconcile credit card statements.

Aging by Patient

• Review patient credit - Patient Credit Management.
• Review high, unpaid balances.

A/R Management

• Days in A/R: Total A/R divided by the average billed amount per day over a time period.
• Net: (Charges - Payments - Adjustments - Transfers + Refunds)

A/R Analysis

• Compare month to month and see the beginning and ending A/R.

Practice Analysis & Closing

• The number of Patients seen and the number of Encounters.
• All Charges, Payments, Adjustments, Write-offs, Refunds, and RVUs.
• Transfers: The money moved (transferred) from/to the next responsible party.

Monthly Actions

• Review Incomplete Charges to see if they can be completed.
• Review Patient Refunds and Insurance Credits for Refunds that need to be made or to Re-apply a Patient Credit.

• The Aging by Patient or Interactive Aging Reports can be used for this purpose.
• Close the financial period.

Collections Reports

Pre-Collections Report

• The User can System generate or create your own.

Aging by Patient

• Use as a call list for Pre-Collection efforts.

Collection Agency Spreadsheet

• Use to send accounts to a Collection agency.

Yearly Reports

Period End

• Year-End is assumed to be a calendar year (Dec 31).

• You can choose to close at a different month for end of year.

• Taxes Collected, if used.