It’s no secret that your practice’s revenue cycle management strategy is critical to its success. It’s a fact that most practices struggle with this area and find themselves in financial trouble. This article will cover why it’s important and how you can develop your revenue cycle management strategy. Below are eight tips for improving your revenue cycle management strategy:
Develop strong partnership
A strong relationship with your partners is the foundation of revenue cycle management. This is especially true for organizations that outsource some or all of their revenue cycle tasks to professional services or outsourcing partners. A good partnership with your managed service providers increases the possibility that they will assist you in meeting your revenue objectives. Because partners are essential to your success, you must work hard to develop a solid relationship with them. How do you do it? Determine how your organization will collaborate with partners first. Then, convey that choice to all business partners with whom your organization does business. Strong relationship building will assist in promoting success in all other areas of revenue cycle management.
Automated workflow
Workflow automation technologies are a tremendous resource for revenue cycle management. They can be used to do the following tasks:
- Concentrate on front-end duties to expedite claim processing.
- When required, transfer patient files and create non-patient files.
- Check and update patient information regularly.
- Add coded comments automatically.
- Verify insurance details before the patient’s visit.
- Update any outdated or incomplete policies.
One of the most significant enhancements providers can bring to their RCM is incorporating workflow automation. Why? Because front-end operations need precision, errors are common in the early stages of RCM, leading to a refused claim. Factors like incorrect or missing patient information and coding cause most errors. Approximately 90% of claim denials are avoidable. Advanced and automated software enhances work quality while reducing time consumption. Examining each claim can be time-consuming and aggravating for your personnel.
Encourage self-pay patients to pay upfront
As you encourage self-pay patients to pay upfront, ensure you have a clear payment policy and process. For example, if your practice is currently charging for each procedure performed at the time of service and not charging any per-visit fees or other costs associated with the process (e.g., supplies), this is great! But if your practice wants to start charging patients who pay in advance or require preauthorization from insurance companies before they can see a physician encourage them to use cash instead of credit cards—everyone must understand what this means for their treatment plans.
It’s also vital that everyone understands how much time they need before seeing their doctor when they choose not to go through traditional channels such as insurance companies or PPO networks.
Leverage your patient eligibility tool
You can use your eligibility tool to help identity patients eligible for financial assistance. Offer financial assistance to these patients, and use the eligibility tool to determine which one will likely qualify. This can also decide which patient should be given payment plans instead of upfront payments if they don’t allow direct billing.
- Use a patient payment estimator to communicate with patients about their financial responsibility before services are rendered.
- Communicate with patients about their financial commitments.
How it’s done: Patients should be given an estimate of their financial responsibility, which can consider co-pays and deductibles. This way, they know what they owe ahead of time and how much they can expect to pay upfront.
Provide conveniently, and secure online payment options
Online patient payment solutions enable patients to make payments quickly and easily. The patient seeks more options to pay soon, such as online payment methods. It is critical to allow patients to access simple and quick payment solutions to improve the revenue cycle and maintain health. Online payment technologies, such as specialized apps, automatic text messages, and quick access to payment portals, make it easier for patients to pay their medical expenses quickly. Modern integrated payment systems increase patient experience and satisfaction while increasing the organization’s revenue cycle.
Offer a payment plan to patients who can’t pay upfront
Apart from patient convenience, another reason to implement an automated workflow system is to secure timely payment. Late and unpaid patient financial obligations slow down revenue collection cycles in healthcare. With an automated workflow system, clinicians can send financial estimates to patients in advance, giving the patient a greater awareness of their financial responsibilities. Another RCM enhancement that providers might make is to require upfront patient payment. Point-of-service or pre-payment solutions can be integrated into automated systems that enable patients to pay for services before they are given. These systems also provide credit-card-on-file services, which aid in payment processing. By implementing these policies, providers can be reimbursed quickly for their services, eliminating late or lost patient payments. Allow patients to make payments over time. Make it easy for your patients to make payments, and ensure that the plan is affordable for you and them.
Investing in Staff
Technology is one of many assets that a healthcare facility can consider. Investing in administrative personnel is equally crucial. Front-end responsibilities are frequently outsourced to certain administrative employees, while back-end tasks, such as revenue collection, are assigned to other departments. Staff can be more aware of the entire revenue cycle, not just their specialized component, by teaching them in all areas of RCM through employee education programmes. This makes it easy for administrative employees to comprehend how they may collaborate to make the change from front-end to back-end jobs seamless and practical.
Monitor Key Performance Indicators
Whatever areas of your revenue cycle you choose to focus on, you must monitor and evaluate your progress. This is crucial for determining the impact of your efforts and identifying areas where improvements may be required. Metrics can be used to assess customer experience, revenue cycle time, productivity, expenditures, and other factors. Choose the KPIs most likely to help guide your RCM strategy. For example, customer retention and satisfaction measures will benefit a company that provides customer-facing services or products. Companies that offer products and services might benefit from RCM metrics that monitor their revenue cycle performance. Only what gets measured gets managed.
Why You Need a Sound Revenue Cycle Management Strategy
A sound revenue cycle management strategy is imperative to the success of your practice. Revenue cycle management is about ensuring that everything goes smoothly for patients to receive their care as quickly as possible. If there are any delays or problems along the way, then patients may choose not to return or seek other alternatives because they know how difficult it can be for them if things don’t go according to plan. This means that an effective revenue cycle management strategy will help improve patient satisfaction by ensuring that their needs are met without issues arising during treatment plans (such as late arrival times).
Conclusion
Your revenue cycle management strategy is key to your practice’s success. It can make all the difference regarding patient satisfaction, profitability and sustainability. Using these eight tips as a starting point, you can begin implementing improvements that will help drive patient payments into your practice’s coffers.
