Charge Entry in Medical Billing

Posted by Deepak Sanghi on August 31st, 2015

Charge entry in medical billing is the key process in which super-bills are actually transformed into real claims that determine the reimbursement of Providers. Errors are highly likely in this process and even a minor one could have a huge impact on the reimbursement. Therefore, medical billing specialists must show extra care while assigning charges to the medical codes (created during the coding process for each healthcare service rendered to patients) in the super-bills or input in the EHR. In addition, a Quality team should be assigned by healthcare entities to conduct regular audits on the medical billing charge entry. This way, errors can be determined and rectified earlier, while reducing claim denials. Let us delve into more details on the medical billing charge entry process:

What is Charge Entry?

It is one of the important processes in the medical claims processing, which converts super-bills or EHR patient information into claims. Super-bills are patient documents that specify the patient demographics, physician details, and different types of healthcare services provided with corresponding diagnoses and billing codes. After the coding part is done, the super-bills are sent for charge entry in which the medical codes are assigned with appropriate charges. This process is tricky and error-prone, so accuracy is very important and cannot be compromised at any cost. Even automated Charge Entry is prone to errors and needs a level of manual audits. A highly experienced offshore medical billing company can provide high-end medical billing solutions with accurate medical billing charge entry.

Impacts of Incorrect Charge Entry:

• Assigning wrong charges to the medical codes in the super-bills will result in claim denials. In addition to showing extra care on the medical billing charge entry process, audits should be conducted frequently to eliminate even the minor mistakes. Finding mistakes after claims are denied, could be a time-consuming and a painstaking process. Prevention is always better than cure!

• The Charge Master should be updated with new diagnostic procedures and codes periodically to ensure proper charge entry.

• Improper or incorrect charge entry in medical billing will also result in negative impacts like overpayment or overcharging, underpayment or undercharging and consequent penalties, especially for the former.

Charge Entry for different Medical Specialties:

PCPs (Primary Care Physician) have lesser line-items, so the charge entry is simple. However, specialty care or multi-specialty healthcare facilities providing multiple services like radiology, laboratory, emergency department, cardiac therapy and more will have more line-items for their diagnoses. It means that the medical billing staff working at these facilities will have more charges to enter as each diagnosis has multiple line items. Therefore, it is imperative that charges for these line items are entered accurately.

Partner with e-care, a renowned offshore medical billing company that has been providing various medical billing solutions, along with precise charge entry.

About e-care India:

e-care India has 15 years of experience in the industry. e-care’s 3 offshore medical billing delivery centers have been providing end-to-end medical claims processing services seamlessly to its clients. To know more about e-care and its services, log on to www.ecareindia.com.