I need your help… I am working in a practice that have been doing the hospital billing the same way for the last couple of decades. They are very fortunate to have the same employee for almost 40 years. Now that I involved in the hospital billing I have been informed that they wait until the patient is discharged from the hospital to create the claim. I have never heard of such rule and I cannot find any documentation to prove it right or wrong either. From previous experience, this rule was not recommended. I have always created the claims on a daily basis if possible, but at the end of the month all visits were counted as part of the monthly financial report therefore all hospital claims were created and sent to the insurance companies by the last day of the month.

My questions is: How do you do it in your practice, your experience? What is your recommendation? Should we wait until the patient is discharge from the hospital to create and send the claim>

In advance, thank you for your help and the learning experience.

Isvel Bacallao CPC