How well are your physicians charting patient treatment and care data? If you are not sure, then you could be missing out. A chart audit can help you improve patient care by identifying tracking and recording errors. Chart audits can also help identify lost revenue from mis-coding or incomplete medical billing records. Since Medicare and fraud audits are becoming more commonplace each year, chart auditing can also identify areas of risk and let you take a proactive stance; mitigating risk early allows you to avoid expensive fines later.
Chart Audits Benefit your Practice in a Variety of Ways
If your practice is struggling with billing or revenue issues then a chart audit could reveal just how much income you are missing out on –and how much risk you are taking on, just by operating as usual.
- Medical Chart Review: A review of each record to ensure that all coding is correct and that medical documentation supports the services ordered and billed. A medical auditor can look at both the clinical and the accounting portion of the chart to determine if there are any errors or omissions and ensure that your charts are fully ACA and HIPAA compliant.
- Data Collection: An objective third party can collect data about not only the most common errors made by your practice, but pinpoint the most common perpetrators as well.
- Analysis: A full report on each chart details any errors, omissions or potential risk factors, while a comprehensive look at the practice as a whole reveals which teams need more help and support when it comes to charting. Physicians, healthcare providers and even your billing staff can and do make errors; a comprehensive analysis helps pinpoint the processes your team is struggling with. Most errors are not malicious, but identifying the cause can help you get your team the education and training they need to help your business thrive.
- Claims and Appeals: A chart audit can help you regain lost income if services denied are found to be medically necessary. A careful review by a skilled auditor can help generate revenue by identifying denials that can be appealed with a substantiated claim.
Chart Audit Solutions
A chart audit allows a skilled third party to carefully evaluate every part of the patient and billing experience and ensure that your practice is compliant with all regulations. The audit can also identify key trouble areas and determine which staff members and practitioners’ need additional training and spot instances where improper coding has cost your practice revenue.
The CoreMD team of experts can delve through your files and help you know if you are on the right track when it comes to coding, billing and compliance. Once the audit is complete, our team can identify patterns and processes that need to be addressed and help you with training, education and support.
If you’re worried about the ever growing threat of an investigative audit or want to make sure that you are truly getting the correct amount of revenue from your services, we can help. Contact us to set up a consultation and learn what our chart auditing experts can do for you; it’s faster and easier than you think to get a full understanding into how well your team is performing and to mitigate any risk you are inadvertently exposed to.