Wrong insurance billed

Q: What do other practices do regarding billing patients who give you the wrong insurance information and you only find out when it's too late?

A: This is a problem with accurate registration and insurance verification-or with patient fraud. Everything should be verified at the time of registration. This includes taking a copy of an insurance card and checking a current address and, perhaps, checking eligibility on provider-side Web portals. If the patient is not honest, or personally uninformed, then he or she would be contacted and handled as a "non-insured" patient and billed as such. First of all, make sure that your office has efficient and effective registration processes.

Answers to readers' questions were provided by Susan Childs, Evolution Healthcare Consulting, Rougemont, North Carolina; A. Michael La Penna, The La Penna Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Barry B. Cepelewicz, MD, JD, Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, White Plains, New York. Send your practice management questions to medec@advanstar.com
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