Hey yáll, this is Jeremy. Welcome back to The Testing Psychologist podcast. I hope everybody is doing well. We are definitely full-on fall here in Colorado. I am looking out the window of my new office, which I love. It has an amazing mountain view off to the west, but in between my office and the mountains, there are a ton of trees with the leaves changing yellow. A lot of them have the leaves totally gone. We’re getting there. It snowed two weeks ago. That’s what it’s like to live in Colorado here. It’s a little crazy.
Hope y’all are doing well. Hope that you were enjoying the weather, whatever that looks like for you [00:01:00], and heading into the holiday season.
Today is the second episode in a series of 3 of 5 Quick Tips. Today, we are talking about Five Quick Tips for Billing.
It’s a nice segue, I think before I get into billing to give a shout-out to this month’s podcast sponsors, Practice Solutions. They are a full-service billing company.
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Talking about billing, we have several things to consider today. I have five quick tips for you with a little bit of a bonus tip as well.
If you are billing insurance, my first tip is to keep a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet for the information that each insurance company requires; whether they need a pre-auth for testing services, which codes they authorize- whether 96101 or 96118, and how many [00:03:00] hours they typically approve. Now, some of this information you can get from the insurance company’s website. Some of that information you learn over time. Another piece that you can include on that spreadsheet is whether they require preauth for specific diagnostic codes or not. I like to keep track again, like I said, of the CPT code, the diagnostic code, how many hours they typically approve, and whether they require a preauthorization.
That’s tip number one, keep a good spreadsheet based on your experience and based on your research on the internet and in your contracts with the insurance companies.
Relatedly, my second tip is to make a template for pre-auth forms. Most insurance companies do require pre-auth. They have a form that you have to fill out. I’ve created fillable PDF documents that [00:04:00] have the critical information already filled in. So depending on what diagnoses you typically test for, as I’ve said many times, I work with kids, so we have pre-auth forms that have the questions already filled in relevant to whether we’re testing for ADHD or autism or a mood disorder or some other differential diagnosis, brain injury, whatever it might be and we have a separate pre-auth form for each of those primary diagnoses so that once we go in to fill out on the pre-auth, all we have to do is fill in the client’s personal information; their insurance ID, their date of birth, address, that kind of thing. And then if there’s anything you have to tweak specific to that client.
I found that most insurance companies that require pre-auth want you to say [00:05:00] the same thing each time. They have the same questions that you want answered and goals of testing and things like that. So templates can help you there.
My third quick tip is to outsource your billing as much as possible. Unless you have someone in-house or you have a family member or something who is pretty skilled in mental health billing, I think it makes sense to consider outsourcing your coverage and benefits. I’ve talked before about the benefits of knowing coverage and benefits for clients. So when I say outsource your coverage and benefits, if you’re not ready to outsource your entire billing operation, which is fine, I would at least outsource the coverage part. Again, this is if you’re taking insurance. So when I say outsource your coverage and benefits, I [00:06:00] mean, contract with a company who can check benefits for the clients before they come in for testing. This will allow you to give people an estimate of their cost right up front. That way, there are no surprises. Now, if you’re not billing insurance, then that’s a moot point, I still think it’s helpful to talk with people upfront about the cost.
In fact, that is my fourth tip. So three and four, I separated, but they’re kind of like the same tip. Tip number three was to outsource your coverage and benefits if you’re taking insurance. Tip number four is more be sure to speak very clearly about the cost right up front. I think some of us can shy away from talking about money and you may have to do a little bit of work around that. I always say, just practice saying your fees over and over again in the shower, while you’re driving to your friends, to your partner, to [00:07:00] get used to it because testing is expensive and it can feel intimidating and a little shaky to put that out there with our clients right up front, but I think it’s really important for clients to know what they’re getting into.
So, speaking very clearly right up front on that initial phone call to help people know what it’s going to cost, I think is helpful. That way, they can plan and there are no surprises down the road.
My 5th quick tip is to seriously consider collecting a down payment or a deposit of some sort for your testing services. The way that we do this is we give people an estimate of the cost right up front when they are scheduling their appointment or when they come in for the first appointment and we collect half of the estimated total cost at the testing appointment. [00:08:00] In our practice, that means that’s the second appointment that families come in for. And like I said, we collect half of the estimated cost. I found that it is extremely rare that we end up having to give refunds and it has drastically improved collections rather than collecting everything at the end.
I’ve heard of people collecting a deposit of a set amount, that might be $500, it might be $750, might be $1000 depending on what you charge for your evaluations, but I think it helps to greatly increase your collections and make sure that people are invested in the process.
Now, a related tip, I’m just throwing this in here as a bonus tip, but a related tip is to seriously consider taking a credit card on file as part of the intake process. I have found that very few people balk at [00:09:00] giving a credit card number and it again drastically increases your collections if you get to that point where you have to charge a card because someone didn’t pay. So consider taking a credit card as well.
My last tip, another little bonus tip is don’t sell yourself short. I’ve heard some discussion in the Facebook group, even recently around people making comments like I can’t possibly bill for all the time I spend writing reports. Well, I think you should bill for all the time that you spend writing reports because if you’re spending that much time writing reports, my hope is that it’s because you’re being thorough, and comprehensive, and you’re providing a really good testing service.
Now, you can check in with yourself if you are taking too much time for whatever reason; you’re overly meticulous [00:10:00] or unfamiliar with something, or you’re learning about a particular aspect of testing that you’re trying to integrate into the report. I think that’s a different story. But for people who are writing comprehensive reports, especially if you’re not billing insurance and you’re not limited by insurance company reimbursement for hours, certainly bill for the time that you spend writing your report. This is a very specialized service and people find it valuable and you have to spend the time that it takes to write a good report. So don’t sell yourself short. Bill for the time that you take.
Those are my 5+ plus quick tips for billing testing services, a few related to insurance and a few not related to insurance. I hope that is helpful for you as you consider tweaking your billing services a little bit.
Stay [00:11:00] tuned next time for our last five quick tips episode. That episode is going to be 5 Quick Tips for Marketing Your Testing Practice. In the meantime, if you are looking for a billing service, consider Practice Solutions. They’re great. Their website is www.practicesol.com/jeremy is the landing page here for The Testing Psychologist. If you sign up through that link or mention that you heard about them through The Testing Psychologist, they will give you a 20% discount on your first month’s services.
So hope y’all are doing well. Take care. Enjoy the holidays here as they come up and we’ll talk to you next time. Thanks. Bye [00:12:00] bye.