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Staying on top of the changing insurance landscape is an essential part of managing your healthcare revenue cycle. Through eligibility verification, you can ensure that patients understand their financial responsibility before they incur costs and keep cash flow consistent by collecting payments at the time of service.
Preparing your patients for their appointment prior to arriving is a simple but highly effective way of avoiding common eligibility issues. To make this process even smoother, here are 6 top tips on how to properly verify patient eligibility.
Establishing a verification method is the first step when conducting eligibility verification. Although the traditional practice is to call or fax patient information to an insurance provider, that can be time-consuming. When outsourcing your verification method, our team will run the eligibility tests for you - saving you time.
Although a verification method has been established, your staff will have to follow up with patients. One of the best times for your staff to conduct this verification is when patients are scheduling an appointment. Another perfect time to verify is at the time of check-in to ensure there have been no changes in the insurance plan since the scheduling of the appointment.
Keeping track of when verification information was collected can also save you time. Should there be a dispute between you and the patient’s provider, you will have proper documentation of eligibility verification. When outsourcing your eligibility and benefits verification, make sure the vendor is also saving patient information.
Being able to offer an estimate of payment for your patients reduces the risk of the patient being caught off guard when collecting payment. We recommend you offer this estimate while on the phone scheduling an appointment with a patient. If you outsource this process, your vendor will be able to provide an estimate for you, saving you and your staff time.
Although your staff may have verified the responsibility of payment while scheduling an appointment, it is important for them to verify this responsibility at check-in. This reduces the risk of patients being caught off guard when told they have a balance at the end of the visit.
Lastly, it is important to reassure your patient that the eligibility verification process is to benefit them. They will feel better knowing that the information they provide you helps them receive the best benefits from their insurance provider. It also benefits you because it will save you time.
Keeping up with patient eligibility and benefits verification is a must for both your practice's success - as well as the satisfaction of your patients. Taking proactive steps to pre-verify information can save precious time at check-in and out while guaranteeing that everyone receives the best rate possible.
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