Denial Management Program

Denial Management Process: The 4Clover Approach to an Effective Denial Management Program

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Denial management process can make or break your revenue cycle. It’s one of the most critical phases in the overall revenue cycle process that can have a significant impact on a Medical Practice’s revenues and cash flow.

Denial management process can make or break your revenue cycle. It’s one of the most critical phases in the overall revenue cycle process that can have a significant impact on a Medical Practice’s revenues and cash flow. The financial impact of claim denials could be costlier than you think. Consider these facts—

  • There’s been a whopping 23% increase in claim denials in 2020 compared to 4 years ago
  • 33% of Healthcare organizations are nearing the “danger zone” with an average denial rate of 10%
  • Reworking claims alone cost 20% of the overall revcycle operational costs with an average claims rework cost of $25 per claim
  • A Medical Practice that reworks and resubmits 100 claims a month alone spends a whopping $37,000 a year
  • Even worse—the revenue potential of 65% of denied claims not resubmitted is lost

Failing to have a holistic approach to working on denials means lost revenue opportunities, while having a long-term negative impact on your Practice’s clinical, operation and financial efficiencies. This article discusses some of the nuances and integrities of a comprehensive denial management process—that can accelerate your revcycle performance, especially the denial management process.

Root Cause Analysis: A Strategic Top-down Approach to Denial Prevention

A standard Denial management process can provide ad hoc solutions to some of the pressing denial challenges that need immediate intervention. However, for a more effective denial prevention strategy, you need to get to the root of the issue.

Root cause analysis is a significant step in denial prevention. Several hospitals and Practices leverage the capabilities of claim management software with automation solutions to simplify and improve efficiencies of the denial management process. Consider asking these critical questions to start with.

7 Questions to Ask in Determining the Root Cause of Denials

What are the key reasons for denials in your Practice?

  • Registration / Eligibility
  • Service not covered by Payer
  • Duplicate Claim or service
  • Deductibles
  • Payer behavior
  • Case management
  • Coding errors

24 hours is all it takes to

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Categorize Your Denials

Your claim denials need to be categorized in order to segment them into Preventable and nonpreventable denials. This gives you actionable insights that help you focus on areas where opportunities exist, and allows you to be realistic and focus on preventable denials. Here’s how you can categorize your denials.

Reason Code Description Category Preventable or Nonpreventable
Additional information requested Documentation and coding Preventable
Coverage not in effect at the time of service Patient registration Preventable
Exceeds maximum number of units Documentation and coding Preventable
Diagnosis not covered Documentation and coding Preventable
New patient qualifications not met Documentation and coding Preventable
No authorization Patient registration Preventable
Timely filing Claims submission Preventable
Non-covered Documentation and coding Non-preventable

While the root cause analysis and denial categorization are amongst the significant processes of the initial phases of the denial management process, at SolvEdge, we have developed the extensive and comprehensive 4Clover Approach (Analyze, Strategize, Discover, Implement), a field-tested technique that’s proven to reduce and prevent denials from the ground up. Here’s how you can run a successful denial management program using the 4Clover approach.

1. Analyze
  • Discuss and launch initiatives
  • Define the denial management project structure
  • Review the denials documentation, policies and the denial management processes
  • Analyze and validate assumptions around denials management programs
  • Conduct interviews, brainstorm ideas and record observations in the project plan
  • Establish an automated reporting mechanism to efficiently track and monitor trends on a regular basis
  • Build adoption strategies and begin development of buy-in from key stakeholders and leadership
  • Identify quick hits
2. Discover
  • Designate a senior-level project manager to execute and manage the denial management process
  • Establish a cross-functional denial management committee for different perspectives
  • Have a formal documentation of the current state of your denial workflow processes
  • Develop strategic initiatives for implementation around quick win opportunities
  • Establish a unique tracking mechanism for aged denials separately
  • Generate buy-in for your strategic plan from key stakeholders and leadership on the validated opportunities
3. Strategize
  • Build new policies, procedures, and framework around new denial management program opportunities
  • Design plans to track denial overturn rates and denial loss rates
  • Construct a full-fledged implementation strategy
  • Review the new policies, procedures and strategic initiatives with key stakeholders before implementation
  • Identify necessary resources and other project requirements to implement the identified opportunities
  • Identify technological needs and support to best manage the new denial management program
4. Implement
  • Establish go-live dates with realistic goals and timelines
  • Establish a root-cause analysis report and provide education on process redesign
  • Implement automated denial management reporting tools to quantify, track and monitor results of the program
  • Go-live with new initiatives
  • Identify and communicate process breakdowns and take stringent measures to refine policies when needed

Post implementation, it is essential that your denial management team continues to track and monitor new policies, denials performance and conduct periodic reviews of the newly implemented denial management program.

SolvEdge’s Denial Management Services

Our denial management services and strategies are uniquely designed to reduce the spiking denial rates, while having a proactive approach to denial prevention. Our customized workflows help determine the root cause of denials. Once the denial patterns are identified, we create a detailed report that evaluates the recurring causes of claim denials under various categorizations like the Payer, doctor, diagnosis and CPT codes. By leveraging these insights, we implement process improvements to reduce denials and optimize revenues.

It’s Time to Get Your Due!

Get your personalized and free consultation on how SolvEdge’s denial management services can help reduce your denial percentage and drive up your revenues and cash flow


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From our humble beginnings as a healthcare start-up—to becoming a full-blown healthcare-exclusive digital transformation provider, our journey has been quite a remarkable one. Today, SolvEdge is a leading-edge Healthcare services and solutions provider—trusted by 450+ Hospitals, 3500+ Physicians and millions of patients across the globe.

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