Timely Filing Miss? Try To Bill The Patient

By Author: Julia Rose
Total Articles: 89
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Here's a situation that you might encounter: You just missed the timely filing deadline. As a result, a payer denied your claim. But this situation came to the fore because the patient didn't give you her insurance information until after the timely filing deadline had crossed.


You don't have too much of an option when your payer denies claim because you missed a timely filing deadline. But when the patient failed to provide her insurance to you in the allotted timeframe, you don't have to write off those charges. As an alternative, you should try to pass the onus of paying the bill to the patient.


If you can prove to the payer that the patient was not successful in procuring her insurance information in the right time, you may be able to convince the payer to allow you to make the payment the patient's responsibility.


Documentation proof: If you use an electronic system, you can easily keep track of when patients call in and make changes to their insurance as well as when you get copies of new insurance cards. This documentation will certainly keep track of when ...
... the patient gave you her insurance information.


As a proof, send a letter to your payer and include a printout from your system that shows the insurance information and when the patient gave it to your office. Ask the payer to rescind its denial based on timely filing and instead deny the claim as the patient's responsibility because she failed to provide insurance information on time.


Remember that timely filing denials from payers are not always correct. You should pull your electronic confirmation reports and see if you have proof that the claim was in fact submitted on time.


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