Understanding Behavioral health billing
In a general medical billing scenario, it is often a simple task to bill the services to health insurance, because they are frequently under one general charge. However, for Behavioral health services, including psychiatric billing services, factors such as length of the session, location of services, age of the patient etc. make the billing complex. Lack of knowledgeable resources and administrative support can cause errors and delay in the billing process.
Additionally, many health insurance plans also require pre-authorization, which can prolong the billing process. Behavioral health billing consultants can help navigate the complexities of billing, ensuring timely and accurate reimbursement.
Behavioral Health billing – Best Practices
Pre-authorize to save time
Always check if pre-authorization is required before starting the treatment, especially since therapy sessions are non-standardized.
File claims on time
It is best practice in mental health billing to create a billing schedule for your practice, such as a particular date every month, so that all claims are submitted to the insurance carrier as per the timeline.
Identify inaccuracies
Having a look at your denied insurance claims will give you an idea about the patterns in your billing process that can be improved. It is advisable to fix the issues for the resubmission within the window given by the insurance carrier.
Update patient information regularly
If there is a change in any patient information such as address, marital status etc., you should ensure that this is updated in the system. It is recommended to get an update done every year so that accurate claim submissions can be done.
A successful Behavioral health business
Revenue collection for Behavioral Health billing services is a complex task. Visibility into every aspect of your revenue cycle with an action plan is inevitable in order to identify and fix the problems before they cost you. If you are falling short of experienced hands at your end then outsourcing to capable and experienced personnel is the key for running a successful Behavioral Health business.
By outsourcing to a behavioral health billing company, you can:
How can Practolytics help?
Practolytics is your one-stop solution for all the medical billing, practice management, patient management, and revenue cycle management activities a healthcare practice needs to carry out. A Platinum partner amongst 850+ billing companies, Practolytics is a 20+ year-old healthcare technology and revenue cycle management services company, providing medical billing service solutions to 180+ practices of all sizes spreading across 31 states and serving more than 28 critical specialties.
If you are looking for a trusted billing partner for your Behavioral Health facility billing operations, Practolytics with its diverse background in every aspect of healthcare is your best bet. We can help you streamline your billing processes so that you can focus on your primary responsibility – patient care.
Increased Efficiency
Focuses on building up the efficiency at every step of patient care.
Coding Accuracy
We review 100% of the charts to ensure that the right code gets reported based on the latest regulations.
Patient Experience
Focuses to build up seamless experience for the patients from scheduling to checkout.
Credentialing
We help you to be in network by negotiating with the top insurances to get the best rates/contracts.
Improve Collections
We help you to maximize the reimbursements by putting efficient systems at every step.
Best Practices
Our team is committed to implement the best practices & policies to remain compliant and efficient.
Optimize Your Behavioral Health Revenue
Practolytics expertise can help you in maximizing your Behavioral health clinic revenue.
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Behavioral health FAQs
How is Behavioral health billing different from Medical billing?
In a medical setting, patients are billed for specific treatments such as Xray, labs etc. In Behavioral health, patients and Insurers are billed for psychological therapies and there are rules pertaining to the length of the session the Insurance can pay for, maximum number of treatments that will be paid for a day or week etc.
Is Pre authorization required for all sessions?
This varies from Insurance to insurance. Generally, Pre Authorization is not required for a regular office visit or few initial sessions. Elaborate services like therapies or psychological sessions may require pre authorization by the insurer.
Does filing the claim have a time limit?
This varies from Insurance to insurance. Usually 90 days is the limit for filing but some Insurers like Medicare allows a year to 18months also for filing. The best way is to check with your Insurer.
How long do behavioral health reimbursements take?
In most of the cases, the reimbursement is done in an average of 30 days from the date the claim is received at the Insurance’s end.
Can the same patient be billed for multiple sessions on the same day?
The rule is normally one session for a patient in a day. If you contact the Insurance you may be able to get authorization for multiple services in a day.
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