Practice Management Alert

Don't wait for MACs to alert you to errors -- be on the lookout. If you don't nip a computer glitch in the bud, you may be plagued with improper denials and other claim holdups. Your best defense against reimbursement-robbing errors is being proactive. 1. Don't Count on Payers Notifying You Glitches can cause erroneous denials, unnecessary rejections, lost crossover claims, and frustrating delays. But if you don't notice the problem, you could kiss your reimbursement goodbye. That's because the payer won't always alert you to a mistake that its computers made. "If a computer glitch was due to a widespread problem, like there was no remittance generation for an entire day, there will usually be an announcement in the MAC's Web site," says Zia Clarkson, a coding, reimbursement, and practice management consultant in Long Island, N.Y. "They do not notify practices or providers individually." Example: Earlier this year, thousands of [...]