Improving First Pass Denial Payment Rate

Discussion Topics Cost of denied claims First Pass Denial rate versus traditional Denial Rate calculations Critical denial points in billing process Improving First Pass Denial rate Denial reporting Appeal processing and tracking

Timeline of a Paid Claim

Payment Turnaround Times

Timeline of a Denied Claim

Payment turnaround times If you bill correctly, they will pay. If you bill correctly, they will pay most claims in 15 days. If you bill most of your claims correctly, keep your unbilled to less than 7 days, GDRO in the 30 is easy!

First Pass Denial rate will tell you what percent of claims are NOT getting billed out correctly. How important is FPD Rate?

Cost of unnecessary denials Cost to rework a claim due to denial = $25 Denial rates average 10-40% of claims 20,000 claims x 20% FPDR = 4,000 denials 4000 x $25 per denial = $100,000/month 1500 denials worked per FTE per month

Calculating Denial Rates How are denial rates reported? Only denials that result in write off Anything requiring rework Service line versus total claim denial Charges as a percent of revenue Volume of denials being reworked by staff By root cause or responsible area

Dashboard

Critical Denial Points Edits (before claim leaves) – Registration edits – Coding edits – Patient Accounting system edits – Billing system/clearinghouse edits Denials (after claim leaves) – 277/999 Payer electronic denials – Return to Provider denials (Medicare) – Remit denials

Timeline of Critical Denial Points

Change Denials into Edits Start with Remit Denials since they delay payment turnaround the longest Add RTP and 277 Denials to process When changing Denials to Edits, shoot for the earliest possible point in the timeline (Registration/Coding) Prioritize issues by dollar and volume

Denials Management Track all denials by payer Use system reports – Zero pay posting with reason codes Select highest volume and highest dollar denial reasons each month to focus on reducing or eliminating Add required registration fields, coding, prior authorization and billing edits or system holds to prevent claims from billing with incorrect data.

Sample Denial Report Denial CodeDescription 22This care may be covered by another payer per coordination of benefits. 18Exact duplicate claim/service (Use only with Group Code OA except where state workers' compensation regulations requires CO) 227 Information requested from the patient/insured/responsible party was not provided or was insufficient/incomplete. At least one Remark Code must be provided (may be comprised of either the NCPDP Reject Reason Code, or Remittance Advice Remark Code that is not an ALERT.) A1 Claim/Service denied. At least one Remark Code must be provided (may be comprised of either the NCPDP Reject Reason Code, or Remittance Advice Remark Code that is not an ALERT.) 221 Claim is under investigation. Note: If adjustment is at the Claim Level, the payer must send and the provider should refer to the 835 Insurance Policy Number Segment (Loop 2100 Other Claim Related Information REF qualifier 'IG') for the jurisdictional regulation. If adjustment is at the Line Level, the payer must send and the provider should refer to the 835 Healthcare Policy Identification Segment (loop 2110 Service Payment information REF). (Note: To be used by Property & Casualty only)

Denial Categories Additional info requested - Patient Additional info requested - Provider Additional info requested Authorization/Pre-Cert Benefits Exhausted Billing Related - Edit Review needed Other Facility Overlap Coding Duplicate/Overlap Eligibility/Coverage Exceeds Frequency Medical Necessity Timely Filing COB Issue Provider Enrollment Other