What does Verification of Benefits Mean To Patients?
Verification of benefits is one of the most crucial aspects of revenue cycle management. Its importance is undeniable when you consider the perspective of providing a luxury service to your patients. Moreover, you are removing a huge barrier between them and their crucial medical treatment. Since medical institutions want to provide the best service possible to their patients, they must include Verification of Benefits. However, it’s impossible to include VOB if you don’t know what it is. Therefore, we’ll explain what is VOB and its main benefits in this blog post. Keep reading to learn more.
What Is Verification of Benefits?
Verification of benefit (VOB) is a part of the healthcare billing service. It means your medical institution will get compensation from the insurance provider if the care is given to the patient. This step is crucial because if you start treating patients with VOB, you don’t know whether the patient’s medical insurance covers the services you provide. As a result, your revenue cycle is damaged, and you lose money instead of making it.
There’s a list of documents that follow VOB, ensuring whether you’re in-network or out-network with the patient’s medical plan. Here are all the documents you need to conduct VOB.
- Patient’s date of birth
- Patient’s first name
- Patient’s last name
- A front and back copy of the patient’s insurance ID
When you have this information, it’s best to save it on your electronic health records (EHR) for future reference. Next, you should call the number on the back of the insurance card to verify the benefits information. This ensures the insurance company won’t deny your claims. Most medical institutions record this conversation as proof. Moreover, it would be best to inquire about the expiration date of insurance for safety measures.
How Does VOB Apply To The Patient
Providing medical services on insurance is a risk for medical institutes. Some patients walk in with expired insurance, or their plan doesn’t cover the treatment they request. VOB has a significant impact on both the patient and the medical institution. Here is how it applies to the patient.
One thing to note about VOB is that the patient’s responsibilities change depending on the services provided by the medical institution. For instance, some insurance companies cover routine visits while others don’t. In that case, you can’t simply fetch data from your computer and request the insurance company for payment at month-end. Instead, you’ll need to feed this information into the system to keep a reminder. Otherwise, you’ll often make this mistake and damage your billing cycle.
Payment Terms Between Insurance Provider and Patient
Verification of benefits applies to the patient’s financials and affects the revenue cycle of a medical institution. Inquiring benefit details from the insurance provider is one thing. However, verifying how much the patient will pay and how much is covered is also important.
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This information will help you manage your books. The amount the patient must cover is provided immediately after discharge. The insurance company covers the rest of the payment, which takes weeks to months. Therefore, knowing how much you should charge the patient allows you to keep cash in your business and keep things running smoothly.
What Health Insurance Plans Are Covered
Sometimes, health insurance companies might not cover certain medical plans. In this situation, it’s important to find out what care you can provide to the patient. You can get this information by calling the insurance agency and clearly stating the services you will provide. For instance, if you provide mental health services, it’s important to mention that to the insurance agency representative. Afterward, you’ll receive a confirmation of the services that are covered.
In some cases, patients try to avail their medical insurance at IV bars. While insurance providers cover medical IVs, skin booster IVs aren’t. Therefore, stating the services you’re going to provide will help streamline things and allow you to manage your billing cycle. If this information is unclear, you’ll be shooting arrows in the dark since you don’t know how much money you’ll get from the insurance provider.
Outsource Medical Billing To Instant Verification of Benefits
Instant verification of benefits is a quick and easy solution for managing patient benefit verification. We provide reimbursement forecasting and data-driven metrics. Moreover, we are HIPAA compliant and secure. If you are looking for an easy solution to revenue cycle management, instant verification of benefits can help.
Advantages of instant verification of benefits include:
- take the guesswork out of insurance payments
- instant verification allows verification on nights and weekends
- catch termed policies without waiting on hold with insurance payors
- quickly get updates on insurance deductibles
- we are the most affordable instant insurance verification solution
If you think you can benefit from instant verification of benefits do not hesitate to call us now. Dial 561-530-5755 or visit our website for more information. We would love to set up a no obligation free demo to talk about increasing your admission rates.
