Tigers live in heavily wooded, tropical jungle forests.  It’s an unforgiving environment for everyday survival.   They must keep their eye on the prize, their prey, in order to live. 

You can find reference to this in the words from the song, “Eye of the Tiger” by American rock band Survivor for the film Rocky III in 1982.

It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all
With the eye of the tiger

With the song now replaying in my head and hopefully yours, I want to take a look at the points made here and bring them into the “concrete” jungle of the medical billing office.

If you are tasked with the Insurance Collections in your office, you can see how denied or rejected claims get paid by you “being the tiger”.

“It’s the thrill of the fight” – Insurance collectors need that fighting spirit.  We don’t get a denial and just say “Okay, guess we are not getting paid”.  We read the reason codes, analyze the claim and review the medical records.  Once we have all our information, we decide: write off or fight.

“Rising up to the challenge of our rival” – Payers have payment policies, yet in contradiction to those, we get denials.  We get denials for duplicates that were never paid and “inactive coverage” denials for patients with policies in effect.  These are just a few scenarios you might encounter, but you stand your ground against their challenges.

“Stalks his prey in the night, and he’s watching us all” – I hope you don’t have to work into the evening hours, but I know you watch those denial appeals, routinely following-up with the payers to keep your claims at the top of the review pile. 

In the final verse, victory:

Risin' up, straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

Inspiration, motivation, gumption, drive, perseverance, stick-to-it-tive-ness, or the “Eye of the Tiger”, whatever term you choose, this is what separates the champion of insurance collections from the rest of the pack.

As a champion, you deserve the best practice management system: Iridium Suite by Medical Business Systems!