Budgeting with projected payments. (Practice Management Clinic).

Your software should allow you to ascertain your projected revenue based on previous payment trends. In this example (figure) of a physician's account that is not yet 90 days old, follow the carrier type (Carr.) listed as "BL" on the top line:

Hist % represents the total amount collected as a percentage of the original amount charged by CPT code.

Hist D (historical days to collection) indicates the average number of days to payment based on past performance.

Tot. Chrgs. and Exp. Pints. (expected payments) are listed, along with Ex Pt%, which indicates that 54.72% of the gross charge is the expected payment. It is important that this is calculated using your existing contracts with carriers. Do not rely exclusively on historical collection percentages.

Amt Pd is self-explanatory.

Amt P of 23.89% is that portion of the 54.72% that is expected.

Remain. Pm shows the amount pending while Rm Pt% shows that 30.83% is the remaining percentage of the 54.72% that is expected.

Based on this example, the physician can expect to collect $80,292.49 (total Remain. Pm) in future revenue even though the total A/R outstanding is more than $111,000. This number is critical for budgeting. Without it, you must either rely on the previous year's figures or make a wild guess as to how much revenue will actually be coming in the door.

Dr. Isenberg is an otolaryngologist in private practice in Indianapolis.; [e-mail]