Unbundling – it will be spotted.
Take, for example, a patient who requires an injection which may be performed by a private orthopaedic surgeon at an outpatient consultation. Thus you raise an invoice for, as an example, £185...
Invoice Right = Get Paid Right
MHM recently completed a project for a group of private surgeons with the instruction being to find out why they weren't getting paid. One insurance company was particularly troublesome but an...
Pre-authorised doesn’t mean you will get paid.
Consider when the patient has contacted his/her insurance company and been issued with a pre-authorisation number. This does not mean, the insurance company will accept your charge. This happened to...
Self Funder problems: pick the phone up!
Many times I come across a consultant who is frustrated by self-funding patients not paying. This is often followed by a reference to numerous reminders and sometimes even final demands being sent...
How Can You Have A Follow Up with a Patient You Have’t Previously Seen?
You can't! Pay attention This is a good example of not paying sufficient attention to the clinic list. It almost cost the consultant £50. The patient was marked down as a follow-up so an invoice for...
The Insurance Company Took My Money Back!
Some insurance companies decline to accept invoices that are sent more than six months after the consultation or surgical episode. Fair enough, they should have been invoiced. BUT… A statement was...
Pre-Authorisations don’t last forever
Have you ever thought how long a pre-authorisation is live? Or how many didn’t realise some insurance companies deem pre-auths do have a life span? For example: I was asked to invoice for a surgical...
Back Up Your Data Before You Have An Accident
It’s amazing how many people don’t back their IT systems up. When they have an accident, they have a serious accident. One guy kept all his correspondence and notes on his laptop and only on his...
Don’t forget to ask for the money!
Many times, consultant surgeons have approached MHM because they, as consultant surgeons, don’t like asking patients for the money. And from a certain point of view, this is exactly how it should...
I don’t have time to do the billing
What a truly awful thing to hear! It was said to me recently by a medical secretary who was struggling to get all her invoicing done. Her belief was that she had only many hours in the day and it...
Why are you in private practice?
Anybody ever watched the movie “Jerry Maguire” and the immortal quote – show me the money! Clearly a guy I recently bumped into at a medical conference hadn’t. He was the Practice Manager for a...
Asking for help – bury your ego
It takes an amazing amount of determination and resilience to become a consultant surgeon. Years of study, sacrifice and long, long nights. Finally you make it. Then one day decide to start a...