Hire the best . . . I had a good chuckle yesterday as I was visiting with our insurance administrator at the office. She has been with us for about 6-8 months and she continues to reveal areas in our submission of claims that need improvement. What is so ironic is that prior to her arrival at our office we did very good at processing claims and getting paid. Our 60 and 90 day delinquent accounts were relatively low, however, she has raised the bar to what acceptable is…WOW. When she showed me a check yesterday from one of our vision plans where the vision company paid us interest, I just chuckled, the kind of chuckle you get when Tom Brady hits Welker in between two defenders where the pass seems impossible.
This post is a reflection of my desire to see optometry offices win the battle with insurance companies. I discovered this after visiting with our insurance admin. This information may not be new to you and it may not make you rich, but it will give you one more piece of information to drive your NET profits up. Up to a level that rewards you for the hard work and time that you have invested into your practice.
- Insurance companies pay interest on claims not paid within 30 days of being filed.
- Interest is approximately 10-12% annual rate of return
- usually do not pay unless requested by your office
- result: claims are now being paid faster
What is a good goal percentage for accounts receivable, i.e. percentage of gross?
Thank you for your question. In a healthy practice, not more than 3-5% of total dollars billed should go unpaid. In practical use, I would consider anything turned to collections as unpaid. Obviously, you want this number to be as small as possible. According to research, if you are not paid within the first 30 days your likelihood of collecting is low, therefore, staff should be aware of this as you do not want them spending all their time on 60 and 90 days. Hope this information helps.