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| Cheryl Sands Executive Vice President |
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Send remits and proof of patient payments daily to SMB:
It is true that we get a lot of remits online at our claims clearinghouse site. But there are many that are still not available electronically. We need your help in getting these sent to us. Also, it is very important that patient payments (that are mailed to your office) are recorded as quickly as possible. So please fax, scan or email those proof of payments daily to us! This will cut down on angry phone calls from your patients. If we don't know they paid their bill, we will continue to bill them. That tends to make them very upset, if they have already paid. We want to avoid that.
Remember to include the date last seen on your routine foot care when needed:
When you see a Medicare patient for routine foot care and the diagnosis is diabetes, please include the date they last saw their PCP and the date. This has to be included in order for Medicare to pay the claim. (The date seen needs to be within 6 months of the date of service.) Get your office staff in the habit of asking every time. When in doubt send the DLS and PCP - it is better to have too much information than not enough.
Respond to requests for additional information quickly:
There are many times that we need additional information; such as letters of medical necessity, office notes, an operative report, or a patient's new insurance information. We only ask if we really need it. Assign one individual in your office to be in charge of getting this information back to us quickly. We will stay on top of these, but we do need your help to get these items back to us quickly!
Refer your patients to SMB when they have billing questions:
We have a toll-free number on every patient statement we mail. (866-514-0380) Get them in the routine of calling us for help. We have friendly, experienced customer service agents standing by to help. They are trained to deal with people in a professional courteous manner. After all, we know that we are a reflection of your office so we treat them with the utmost respect. We want to take this off your plate, so that your staff can focus on the needs in your office. We know how busy you are and that is why you have us to offload these types of issues.
Send claims to us daily:
This is the best way to ensure that your money flow stays consistent. Be sure and ask each patient every time they come in for new insurance cards or if anything has change on their personal info; address, phone, etc. Collect a copay each time, also. The best time to collect money is when the patients are right there in front of you. They are used to paying a copay at the time of service and should be fine with it. If you need to know how to look up balances due, contact us for a refresher course on our system. We are glad to show you around.
Thank you for your help with these items above. Working together to maximize your reimbursements and getting claims out the door quickly and correctly the first time is our goal. We appreciate all you do!
