Aging Reports (Accounts Receivable)
Carla Donaldson
Baker College

There are many different aspects associated with the Medical Insurance Specialist we are going to take a look and what is involved in what seems to be a simple task of account recievable or also known as “Aging Reports.”
Numerous reports are esstiantial to running a medical office, one of the most important report is your Aging report. Most office have all went to electronic medical records so you have everything at your finger tips. We are going to look and the program called Medisoft to run an aging report the are steps that hopefully will make this task go smoothly“In the medisoft progam many reports that need to be looked into can be found under the Reports Menu, such as aging reports. By clicking on the Reports Menu you will see to the right of the screen a drop down list where you will find an “all folders” category within you will go to the title of aging reports power pack. In order to print the proper report you must enter the date of service, you will then go into the category of the charges and payment adjustments upon doing so the report will show up on the screen with the option to print the report” (Sanderson, 2013). When running this report there are certain information that must be included Aging Reports include the patients name, along with the patients balance by how long it has been owed, date and the amount of the last payment made to the physicians office. In some cases significant patient balances my indicate a problem with the billing cycle.“ An aging report lists the amount that is monies owed to the physicians office or hospital, organized by the amount of time that the money has been owed.” (Sanderson, 2013) Most medical practices use a number of reports to show which patient accounts need to have a follow up done, so that past due monies owed can be collected.
The information on our aging report helps us with follow-ups on our revenue in the office we are able to pull up patient information and see what is needed to be followed up on and what actions need to take place in order to collect monies owed for services rendered. Aging’ is basically a process of follow up and collection. When a claim is unpaid for over 30 days it is considered to be aged, and in the financial world an unpaid receivable loses its value every day that it remains unpaid. That means that all those medical aged receivables are costing money. The first and foremost tool of the aging process is the ‘aging report’ a status summary of all patient accounts showing the payment status of all claims associated with that account. The medical billing staff should review the aging reports for the whole practice at least once a month to identity delinquent accounts and perform necessary actions to facilitate payment.
To follow up on revenues that have not been received we would follow a plan of action which according to (Lenzi, 2013)30 Days -- Mail or fax a follow-up letter containing all relevant claim information (including original filing date) and a copy of the original claim. Request an explanation for payment delay and state that the original claim was filed in a timely fashion
60 Days -- Send a similar letter and copy of original claim as before.
Indicate that the letter is a second, 60 day follow-up and additional follow-up will occur if payment is not received promptly.
90 Days -- Begin telephone contact with the insurance carrier to determine the status of the outstanding claim(s).