The modern medical practice faces more challenges than ever. Only about 60 percent of medical practices hit their targeted revenue goals. The missed mark commonly comes from problems with everything from staffing issues and heightened operational costs. However, slow billing practices and reimbursement play a major role. Therefore, task management is an important change to ensure communication between billers and clinical staff is quick and accurate.
Tasking and assigning items within your Electronic health record (EHR) Software to either staff members or patients supports good productivity in your practice. You gain the ability to designate tasks that need to be completed accordingly and make sure those tasks are carried out efficiently and effectively. However, for task management processes to work, your task management system must be seamlessly linked with your medical billing processes.
The PrognoCIS EHR offers a combination of revenue cycle management (RCM) and billing features to keep everything aligned. The Task Assignment feature is one of those functions meant to make handling billing tasks a more streamlined process.
How the Tasking and Assigning System Works
When a patient visits the practice, you have two points of interaction: the treatment process and the billing process. The clinical staff documents what takes place during the visit. The billing staff captures insurance information and creates a medical billing claim. Some providers also use a third-party billing service, which means you may even have three entities that need flawless lines of communication.
The Task Assignment function is designed to facilitate open communication between those that handle billing (even third-party billing services) and clinical staff members. Take a look at the general process for creating an item in the PrognoCIS Task Management System.
Add Task
To create a task, simply pick who the task should be assigned to in the drop-down menu. The system populates a list of clinical staff members and roles that a task can be assigned to within the practice.
Fill Out the Required Fields
Once the task assignee has been selected, fill out the required fields. Each mandatory item is marked with a red asterisk. Tasks can vary, and a drop-down list can be created for convenience. However, the task management system offers a field for inputting broader comments. For example, a biller can input that they need specific information regarding a patient’s treatment process in order to submit a claim.
The user can then input the date the task needs to be completed so the clinical staff knows how quickly they should react. If the user wants to create a task alert that also goes to other staff members, they can CC the message to others. Once the task is submitted, this creates a real time task that the assigned and CC’d staff members can see immediately in their dashboard, regardless of where they may be located.
Make Sure to Attach Tasks to Other Patient Resources
With the seamless integration of the EHR and tasking and assigning those tasks, users can make sure patient resources are connected. For example, a clinical staff member can log in, see they have a task assigned to them from the biller, and then see the patient’s name and full EHR. This allows the staff member to cross-reference information with the assigned task and the patient that the task is associated with in one place.
Tracking Tasks and Statuses
The task management system will keep a populated list of tasks that need to be addressed in a staff member’s dashboard. In the messages view, users can see the received date, due date, and status of each individual task. Therefore, assigned tasks are less likely to be overlooked or disregarded, which can impede medical billing processes.
The True Value of an Effective Task Management System
Claims delays and denials can be one of the biggest costs to a practice. Additionally, the longer a claim sits idle due to lacking information, the more a practice’s cash flow can be affected.
Data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2021 offers a look at just how problematic medical billing impediments can be. Around 17 percent of in-network billing claims were denied among all insurers, but some individual insurer denial rates reached as high as 49 percent. The top reasons for claim denial were:
- Claims were submitted for a non-covered or excluded service
- Claims were submitted without proper prior referral or pre-authorization
- Claims were submitted for unnecessary medical services
Many claims can be approved the first time if the medical biller has all the accurate information needed to submit the claim. The task management system makes this an easier process. For example, a biller can input a request in the task management system for the provider or clinical staff to clarify information about a pre-existing condition during an appointment. Or they can create a task that requests staff to conduct necessary diagnostic procedures so certain other claims will be covered.
According to Becker’s Hospital Review, around $262 billion in medical claims are initially denied. A single denied claim can cost a provider roughly $118 throughout the appeals process. With better communication within one system, claims billing is a more streamlined process. This can negate issues with lacking claim information and cut back on the number of denied claims that cost the practice revenue and time.
Make Your Practice Financials Easier to Manage with PrognoCIS
PrognoCIS strives to provide software solutions and services that make navigating the complex financial nature of medical practices easier. The combined EHR workflow and Task Management function create a single space for managing important billing tasks.
Further, you can combine the software with PrognoCIS medical billing services to simplify processes even further. If you are interested in learning more about PrognoCIS EHR software or Medical billing Software, be sure to request a demo or reach out to talk to a representative.
