Health

Medical Debt

How To Reduce Medical Debt? 6 Options To Consider!

Medical Debt is very common nowadays and unfortunately, the underprivileged communities are affected a lot. Throughout the year due to high inflation the purchasing power of the common people is decreasing drastically. Having proper medical care is a right of every human being.

Paying off medical bills is not as easy as dealing with other kinds of medical bills. Here in this article, we will evaluate the common reasons behind the high medical Debt and how we can reduce them effectively. But first, let’s have a quick look at what exactly is medical debt.

What is Medical Debt?

Medical Debt is pretty much different from other kinds of Debt. It is defined as a Debt incurred on any person who availed of any medical treatment from any medical service provider.

Impact of Medical Debt 

Medical Debt is not only associated with financial liability. But various studies suggest that it can also impact the overall health condition of an individual. Like if an individual is facing some medical debt, this financial strain can restrict him to avail of further medical care. Which itself is alarming.

It has been seen that debt is also associated with negative health behaviors due to mounting stress. The person may start smoking, adopt other kinds of bad habits or start consuming low-quality food.

If you are a credit card holder then you can damage your credit card history and those low credit scores ultimately put you at credit risk.

6 Options To Reduce Medical Debt

Following are those options that can help you to reduce the medical Debt.

Create a Payment Plan

You can create a payment plan with your health service provider. The payment plan will help you to divide the amount you owe to the service provider. Which surely you can’t afford to pay in a single bill.

The amount of payment you can give to your service provider each month will depend on the amount incurred on you and on the terms and conditions of that particular health care system. The payment plan is one of the best solutions available to avoid medical debt.

Check Your Bill Again

Before paying for the bill you have to check it out again. Because there are chances that the health care center charges you for the services they never rendered. So try to verify the bill before planning to pay. While if you are having the services of any insurance company then you can also cause them to confirm that amount.

Take Medical Insurance Plans

Having insurance plans can give you an advantage. Get yourself insured and read all the insurance terms and agreements carefully. Also read out about your insurance coverage. There are some procedures and treatments which are usually excluded from the general insurance agreement. So you have to make sure about the treatments which are the parts of your insurance coverage.

Avail Medical Credit Cards

As a patient, your first priority is to make an efficient payment plan with your health service provider. But if somehow you fail to negotiate for the payment plan then you can also avail advantage of medical credit cards.

These medical credit cards are issued for specific medical purposes usually for emergency situations. Allowing many patients to get immediate medical care when needed.

Many medical credit cards are interest-free for up to a 12 months period so if you are planning to apply for a medical credit card then you should make sure that either you are capable of paying your debt within the given time period or not. In that case, the medical credit card would be the best option for you to avoid medical Debt.

Take Assistance from a Medical Billing Advocate

Having a medical Billing advocate can also help you to reduce your medical debt.

Those billing advocates are experts in understanding the actual cost of any medical procedure.

So you can hire them to negotiate with the health service providers on your behalf. A good medical billing advocate can also help you to set up a good plan to get rid of your medical debt.

Reconcile to the Service Provider on your own

In that case, if you don’t want to take assistance from the medical billing advocate then you can also negotiate on your own with the health service provider. For that purpose, you have to be fully aware of all the regulations, treatment procedures, and costs. Also, go through your medical bills and detect any charges that look inaccurate.

Apply for Income-driven Hardships Plans

The income-driven hardship plan is exclusively for those individuals in the country who fall into the low-income category. Many health care units have financial assistance programs that help people to manage their medical expenses. Talk to your healthcare provider to confirm your eligibility in that scenario.

While on the other side the income-driven hardship plan can also help you in making a payment plan similar to the plan we have discussed previously.

Medical Debt reduces options for Senior Citizens

It is estimated that an immense amount of people aged above 65 are living with chronic disease. These senior citizens required special medical assistance and in that phase of their life, no one wanted to get a medical debt.

The US government has designed many programs, especially for these people. State health insurance assistance programs (SHIP) Medicare, and Medicaid programs are examples of it.

The Medicare and Medicaid program is designed to give citizens proper healthcare and also they work in reducing their medical debt through insurance assistance. While the SHIP is the state-organized program that offers counseling and assistance to the recipient of the above program and they also help them to overcome their medical debt.

Paying off your medical debts is not always easy for every individual. While throughout the article we have discussed how it can cost you a lot if you are not seriously considering it. The best way to tackle medical debt is to negotiate with the professional. You can also benefit from a no-interest payment plan and federal relief plans if you are eligible for them.

Read more...
Mental Health

What Is Mental Health And Why Is It Important To Overall Health And Well-Being?

Mental health is equally important as physical health. Mental health consists of cognitive, psychological and social factors. It affects the way we think and act. Most people do not think about their mental well-being as they consider it just average. 

Our mental health impacts our daily routines, relationships, and overall health and well-being. It can be affected by the events and experiences we face in our lives. Some can have a mental illness due to some biological or medical factors as well. Stress, tension and depression change our mental condition, and they change the way we face problems in our lives.

No one can always be happy, because everyone is facing some problems in their lives. Mental health is about having a balance within your mind. It is fine to feel stress and sadness when you face certain situations. But it becomes a problem when you start feeling negative emotions more than usual.

Why Is Mental Health Important?

Mental health is essential to lead a stress-free and physically healthy life. Physical and psychological health both are parts of overall health and well-being. Both are related to each other. 

A mental disorder like depression can cause different physical diseases like stroke and heart disease. Likewise, chronic medical conditions can cause mental disorders like anxiety and depression.

Good mental health helps you fight stress, makes you more productive and enables you to become physically healthy.

For a psychiatrist, it is an achievement when their patients become mentally healthy. They are working with them to improve their mental well-being, so their patients can have stress-free lives.

But certain business operations stand in the way of effective treatment sometimes. And, these operations can affect the treatment and care experience for a patient.

How Can You Improve the Mental Health of Your Patients By Making Processes Faster?

As a healthcare provider, your goal is to provide the best treatment to the patient, not handling other business operations. There are many problems which affect your services. 

For example, the medication for mental health patients tends to be expensive, so there are many issues when going for prior authorizations from health insurance companies. It is hard to do everything by paperwork. 

As it takes a lot of time and there can be a lot of human errors as well. Many claims get rejected because of these human errors. Also, the overall process gets very time-consuming for the patients, and it is worse for the patients who are going through mental health problems. So what is the best solution?

It’s true that outsourcing can relieve you of these time-consuming tasks. Let’s have a look on some benefits of outsourcing; 

Benefits of Outsourcing Your Operations:

You will get the following benefits:

  • Reduced Billing Errors

 Billing errors and patient payments will be handled automatically for you so that you will no longer have to worry about them. Your billing and payment concerns will be taken care of, so you can concentrate on your patient’s mental well-being.

  •  Professional Claim Handling & Denial Management

Patients may not be able to receive the proper treatment due to these processes. To improve the mental health of the patient, you must outsource your time-consuming tasks to specialists.

  • Save Time By Using EMR, EHR and PMS Software

This software automates the whole practice system. To diagnose your patient, you will have templates to use. By clicking on a patient’s name, you’ll have access to all of their information. Because of its high level of security, your client’s information is safe.

 You can also create group appointments for multiple clients, client portal, online scheduling and tele therapy sessions for them.

By outsourcing your operations, you can not only increase the mental health of your patients but can also focus more on your caring your patients 

Let’s Outsource Your Operations To Med-Miles LLC

Here Med-Miles can help you out. If you’re looking for the best psychology practice management software then look no further. We deploy EMR, EHR and PM software for you so that you could have the patient’s information as quickly as possible. Still, need help? Then call our experts at +1 888-598-9181.

Read more...
accounts receivables

Common Accounts Receivables Issues And How To Overcome Them

Are you suffering from recurring errors in your Medical Account Receivable processes? It’s important to know that you are not alone, as there are many common problems that trouble healthcare organizations and obstruct their financial goals. 

Unpaid accounts receivables can seriously damage your cash flow. It is the most critical process in any business. The main reason is poor AR management might result in unhealthy cash flow, and it is hard to manage AR.

In this way, you must employ the correct processes and tools for overcoming the challenges.

Throughout this guide, you’ll learn about 4 common challenges for accounts receivables and how to solve them. 

Let’s have a look!

Problems Relating To Accounts Receivables Management & Solutions

1. Knowledge Deficit

It is crucial to have a deep insight into the multiple reasons for claim denials or delays in payments. However, these problems must be corrected. Providing particular information regarding insurance claims, treatments, or delays is one way to help in implementing these measures. 

The lack of follow-up leads to countless requests for the same issue, which shows a lack of confidence in claims resolution. There is always a solution for any problem. Check out how you can resolve it below.

Solution

  • Train your calling team on a regular basis.
  • To prevent confusion in the protocols, assign callers to specific insurances or physicians.
  • You should make sure your callers pay heed to the call to prevent excessive repetitions.
  • Embedding denial reasoning can simplify call documentation.
  • Callers should review the claim and route it back to the web follow-up team for cases when the payer does not respond to initial claim requests by phone.
  • Audit the call notes your agents have written frequently.
  • Keeping an eye on your A/R data can help you better understand how efficient your team is.

2. Call Documentation Is Incomplete

It is best to document call notes in a structured manner, either during the call or immediately after. When A/R team members document call notes late, ineffective documentation is generated, and dialed numbers and insurance information are missed. These issues result in ineffective corrective actions that further delay the recovery and payment.

Solution

  • Through the use of objective questions, the caller is guided to gather the right information for specific denial coders (kick codes).
  • In order to standardize call documentation, operations leaders should consider automated documentation capabilities for each of the issues listed above. 
  • An excellent way to retrieve or cross-check missing information is using call recording technologies.
  • Make sure your callers consistently follow your company’s documentation protocol and billing process.
  • Your callers’ calls and collected information should be regularly audited.

3. Denied Insurance Claim

The healthcare organization’s cash flow is negatively impacted by this predictable and frequent AR problem. It is estimated that the denial rate for healthcare is between 10% and 25%. Despite this, MGMA recommends that the best healthcare organizations have a denial rate of only 4%.  

By making simple corrections, you can avoid the significant loss of revenue due to your hospital or organization.

Solution

  • The medical accounts receivable management team must carefully review each claim form before submission so that it meets the guidelines.
  • All denied claims must be investigated and any missing values must be determined and submitted.

4. Unnecessary Write-Offs 

There are some write-offs that are important, and others that do not. You should review each medical account receivable carefully. It is unlikely that the team emphasizes a lower payment amount, but some patients opt to pay in installments. 

Ultimately, these small payments will have a negative impact on your organization’s balance sheet if they are not managed properly. Consequently, you must remember that a quick review of the patient’s every overdue bill could lead to reimbursement for your organization.

 Solution

  • Determine which write-offs require managerial approval. These will help you to accelerate smaller accounts.
  • Monitoring and tracking write-offs will allow you to identify issues with your reimbursement policies and procedures. Using tracking, you can identify the problem associated with higher spikes. 
  • The first step towards reducing unnecessary write-offs is to identify and devise a plan. If you want to create a successful strategy, you need to examine the past data and determine an average write-off rate. Setting a limit for annual write-offs will give you control over them.

5. The Staff Is Unmotivated

Everyone in your organization, from medical providers to administrative staff, should love what they do and should strive to help your organization reach its mission and objectives. 

The bottom line is that if your organization is losing money both on the salary side as well as on the profit side because of a lazy staff, then you should observe the negative impact on the organization’s account.

 Solution

It is highly recommended that you outsource revenue cycle management and receivable management operations to a reliable outsourcing partner, who can diligently implement your requirements with the latest technology and dedicated staff. 

Outsourcing RCM services has many advantages that your organization can compare to hiring in-house staff.

Managing various tasks at once in the healthcare industry is not easy. A top priority of today’s health organizations is to reduce costs and improve efficiency. So, if you are considering outsourcing your revenue cycle management and accounts receivable tasks then it is the best solution for all your healthcare needs.

We at Med-Miles LLC follow a strict audit process to improve your collection process. To learn more visit our Accounts receivable Management services

Read more...
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

2021 Brings AI, Social Determinants Of Health Into Focus

As we enter the New Year, there will be a push by the healthcare industry to use artificial intelligence and the social determinants of health data in order to improve clinical decision-making

Following a booming, milestone year, in 2021, many were ready for a fresh start. Some things, in healthcare, however, will remain the same: specifically, the importance of artificial intelligence and the social determinants of health data

During the entire pandemic, organizations used AI and data analytics tools to track the spread of disease and assess risk to patients. A crisis spurred academic institutions, health systems, and providers to develop and improve their AI and machine learning capabilities, setting the stage for even more advanced technologies in 2021.

The payers, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies are beginning to join providers in recognizing that social determinants of health (SDOH) have a major impact on patient adherence and clinical outcomes. At this time, health care organizations are faced with the challenge of finding ways to analyze and use this data to help patients.

Let’s Look In-Depth Below

Researchers so far in the New Year have used AI to predict the likelihood of prostate cancer recurrence, assess tumor genetics, and analyze patient brain scans. 

As the year progresses, the industry is likely to use data analysis tools to improve day-to-day operations, as well as visibility, to keep up with the demand for virtual care.

In 2021, social determinants of health data will also play an important role in the healthcare industry. Even though this information tends to be difficult to access and share, COVID-19 has made social determinants data a critical asset for organizations seeking to target interventions and stay ahead of poor outcomes.

The Impact Of Social Determinants of Health 

Most cases, social determinants of health are the conditions where patients live, learn, work and play. Moreover key elements of social determinants of health include employment, education, crime and imprisonment, healthcare access, food insecurity and pollution. 

The data sets of social determinants of health are large and complex which normally includes the census data, ICD-10 Z codes and consumer behavior data.

Looking at and predicting which social determinants make patients most likely to be at risk as a result, it can help health care organizations intervene effectively to improve outcomes for individual patients.

In 2021, a trend will continue to rise between healthcare systems and community organizations. Their collaborations became more widespread day by day.

Moreover, there are lots of social determinants of health that will have a serious impact on a patient’s wellness. Let’s take an example;

Transportation

Having transportation has an effect on a patient’s well-being because it directly affects whether or not the patient can access his or her health care. At times when patients have transportation barriers, they are less likely to attend a wellness visit, a doctor’s appointment for chronic conditions, or follow-up care.

Income

Income is a widely accepted social determinant of health because it has a dominant influence on several other social determinants of health. As, income can impact 

  • Educational attainment 
  • Healthcare affordability, payer status
  • Housing status 
  • Access to nutritious food

And numerous other domains. However, it is challenging for patients to achieve wellness because of facing limitations in social determinants of health. 

How AI Delivers Value From Social Determinants of Health Data?

It is possible for the AI to unlock value in SDOH data. This can identify patients who are struggling with SDOH-related health problems. The AI can then adapt targeted measures to help these patients better manage their health by making the most efficient use of resources in the process.

In a recent study published in the American Journal of Managed care have found that AI can perfectly predicted inpatient and emergency department use using only publicly available SDOH data such as sex, age, race, and address. In addition, this study showed that local air quality and income were more important predictors of health than age, gender, or ethnicity.

Difficult To Access SDOH Data?

Having access to SDOH data isn’t easy – you also need a team that understands the unique complexity of healthcare data.

At MED-MILES LLC, our primary goal is to use artificial intelligence to drive positive health outcomes because our programs take care gaps, compliance and quality measures into account with payers. 

So don’t be left behind just give us a call at +1 888-598-9181

Read more...