To get claims billed quickly, it’s important that practices reduce the number of errors that occur throughout the billing process. One of the first steps in the process where mistakes often occur is patient registration. When inaccurate information is collected during the registration process, there are significant downstream effects. These errors create delays and ultimately slow down the practice’s ability to get claims out the door quickly.

There are several things a practice can do to reduce patient registration errors. To start with, patient registration errors should be tracked so the practices can get a better understanding of which errors are being made and who is making the errors. The image below is an example of a pivot table created in Excel. The first section shows the number of errors by type that occurred each month. Just below that table, the various errors are shown as a percentage of total errors.

The next table shows the number of registration errors made by each employee. This is a handy way for managers or supervisors to identify individuals who may benefit from extra training. Also, sharing this information with the team may motivate them to improve, especially when they are comparing themselves to their peers.

Apart from tracking the errors, practices should also build in some accountability to the patient registration process. What complicates the matter is that those individuals who cause the errors are not always the same individuals that have to fix them. For example, if a member at the front desk incorrectly enters an insurance ID number, it may not be caught until the billing team bills the claims or runs a claim edit check. It’s usually easier and faster for the biller to correct the mistake rather than track down the individual who actually caused the error.

While correcting another person’s errors may help speed the claims process along, the practice will continue to suffer delays if the problem doesn’t get addressed. Therefore, the practice should devise a system of accountability by requiring those who made the mistake to fix the mistake.  Some PM systems may not have a way to facilitate this; however, a well-written pivot table like the one shown below may help.

This table is one example of how the results of a claim edit check can be displayed so that registration errors can be easily identified. The errors are grouped by the individual and also include the claim/encounter number for easy access.

How quickly is your practice getting claims billed? Are patient registration errors causing delays in your billing process?  Dive into your practice’s data and start improving your revenue cycle.