Electronic Billing for Behavioral Health; How to Leverage Technology

Technology provides an advantage for behavioral health organizations to streamline processes, engage in best practices, and improve patient outcomes. Developing efficient processes optimizes an organization’s ability to function. Electronic billing for behavioral health incorporates technology to leverage time and skills, reducing the workload for behavioral health teams. Find out how you can leverage technology to benefit your facility.

What Is Electronic Billing for Behavioral Health?

Using paper charts is a thing of the past. Electronic charting is fast and efficient. It also helps to eliminate errors and lost information. 

Electronic billing is another way to promote efficiency and accuracy for healthcare organizations, enabling timely reimbursements. Electronic billing connects with the electronic health record (EHR), allowing data to cross over from documentation with appropriate diagnosis and procedure codes. 

The CMS-1500 or UB-04 are common claim forms for healthcare organizations. Behavioral health claims are typically submitted with the UB-04, but moving beyond the paper is the best option for a facility. 

Electronic billing gathers information from a provider’s documentation to accurately represent the time spent with the patient and the correlating diagnostic and treatment codes. Claims are submitted either through the practice management component of the electronic health record, a separate billing software, or an outsourced billing company.

How Can It Benefit Your Organization? 

Adopting efficiency in healthcare is paramount to its success. It is a best practice and holds many benefits for an organization. Electronic billing for behavioral health is beneficial in many ways:

• Billing Codes – codes, like behavioral health, are in constant flux. Billing codes may change throughout the year, delaying claims processing or denials. If codes are not automatically updated through the billing software, memorizing behavioral health billing codes can be daunting. Coders must also ensure that the software is consistently up to date. 

• Payer Regulations – codes change, but each insurance payer has rules that must be followed for successful claims processing. Behavioral health billing guidelines correlate with payer regulations, demanding a strong focus on compliance to ensure that claims are submitted per the payer’s specifications.  

• Claims Process – behavioral health billing services call for accuracy with every claim but claims processing is still complex even with comprehensive billing software. Your billers must diligently monitor the process from beginning to end to ensure they capture every bit of revenue.  

• Credentialing – electronic billing is a component of healthcare technology that advocates for efficiency. Still, if a behavioral health provider is not credentialing, that efficiency is pointless, and claims submitted to an insurance payer without full credentialing may result in claim denial. Your facility must ensure that providers are fully credentialed with a payer before they accept any patients with that insurance.  

How Technology Can Reduce Claim Denials and Streamline Your Organization 

Technology platforms ensure convenience for behavioral health facilities. Behavioral health billing solutions include new and improved electronic billing software that verifies eligibility and automates prior authorizations. With deep learning and AI-powered management, claims processing and denial management is a breeze.  

Electronic billing technology aims to reduce errors by connecting with regulatory and coding changes, your organization’s specifications, and how each provider delivers care. Technology reduces claim denials, increases efficiency, and reinforces the importance of focusing on patient care. All of this is possible by embracing technology and using behavioral health billing companies to facilitate growth, increase revenue, and develop a new focus on improving patient care.

Coronis Health can guide you on a new journey by using the technology and expertise to give you peace of mind, more efficiency, and a stronger focus on what matters the most – your patients. Call Coronis Health to request your free financial checkup today!

from
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