The health insurance claim is simply a request for payment, that the insured or the insured’s health care provider submits to the insurer for items or services covered in the health insurance plan. The insurer reviews the Insurance claim for its validity and only once approved, then paid out to the insured or requesting party (on behalf of the insured).
Making a Health Insurance Claim
Health insurance claims can be made in two ways:
- On a Cashless basis – here the treatment requires to be only at a network hospital of the Third Party Administrator (TPA) servicing the policy. Authorization for availing the treatment on a cashless basis needs to do according to the procedures laid down in the prescribed format
- Claims on a reimbursement basis- here the clauses related to the claims in the policy document need to be read, and all the procedures and documents required for making a claim on a reimbursement basis need to be understood properly. Post-hospitalization one needs to ensure that all the documents related to claim settlement are ready like the claim form, discharge summary, prescriptions, and bills
Significant reduction in claims
While filing health claims either for group insurance plans or individual health plans; certain procedures and things need to be kept in mind so as to accrue adequate benefits from the claims filed. However, at times various billing mistakes while filing health insurance claims can cause significant deductions in the final claim settlements.
The health care provider or the person filing the claim to avoid claim deductions resulting in delayed payments, costly fines, and loss of revenue- needs to watch out for a few common billing mistakes before billing the claims.
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Inaccurate or Incomplete Patient Information
The smallest details matter while filing a claim and if not kept in mind can lead to denials and eventually deductions in overall claim settlement. Should avoid Inaccurate or incorrect details about patient information and the person filing a claim may miss various minute details. Resulting in a deduction or delay of claim amounts.
Simple inaccuracies in inpatient information that can lead to claim deductions include- names spelled incorrectly, the wrong date of birth, group number not entered, diagnosis code not corresponding with the procedure performed, and so on. Due to these claims payments may delay and the total claim settlement eventually reduce.
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Procedures not covered
It is a possibility that the procedures one had weren’t covered by the health insurance policy. Though one may believe that it is covered. Hence before filing all health insurance claims; check the terms of the policy properly; as some plans don’t cover certain categories of care, such as infertility treatments or dental surgery.
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Poor Documentation
This can negatively affect the claims process; this happens if the provider has provided incorrect, illegible, or incomplete documentation of a procedure or patient visit. In this case, it becomes difficult to make an accurate or complete claim. Moreover, in such a case the person filing the health insurance claim or the medical biller must contact the provider to get the correct information.
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Upcoding or Unbundling
This involves not giving an accurate idea of the level of service or procedure involved. Either, done by error or at times to receive higher reimbursement rates. Upcoding occurs when codes for services a patient did not receive. Or codes for more intensive procedures than the provider actually performed enter. It also occurs when a service performed is not covered but instead, a covered service is billed in its place. And done in an attempt to receive more money from the insurance company.
Unbundling is billing for procedures separately, considered all-inclusive. For example- when a person files a claim; bills for two unilateral screening mammograms, instead of billing for one bilateral screening mammogram. When finally the insurance company reviews it, it results in a denial of the claim amount.
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Duplicate or Wrong Billing
When files the claim for the same procedure, test, or treatment more than once results in duplicate billing. While mistakes like billing for a wrong service or a procedure or test. Canceled but never removed from a patient’s account results in wrong billing. Generally, these errors occur due to simple human errors; and fines for various facilities for fraud each year for such mistakes. Considering fraud as willingly and knowingly filing medical claims that are inaccurate.
Besides these, there are several other reasons why health insurance claims see significant deductions such as procedures that usually require pre-authorization filed without the same, failure to verify insurance, wrong codes, billing mistakes, transcription errors, etc. Chart audits are good preventive measures to adopt to reduce inaccuracy and increase claim payments. Also, there are several group health insurance plans which offer an easy claim settlement process; enabling quick and speedy settlement.
