5 Smart Tips for Improving Revenue Cycle Management
An optimized revenue management cycle or RCM is the key to successful medical practice; the lack of which often results in chaos. An effective RCM helps is streamlining billing and revenue collection processes and eliminates most billing and coding related challenges faced by a healthcare system. After all, the overall financial health of a healthcare business is just as important as delivering excellent healthcare services to patients. Some of the most common problems faced by RCM are:
• Clerical errors at the time of patient registration leading to non-clinical denials from insurance payers.
• Improper medical coding practices causing a denial of payment.
• Lack of digitalization impairing patient-provider communication and timely management of payments.
• Delays in handling insurance payment denials prolonging the time between seeing the patient and getting paid for the care
These challenges remain the same for most healthcare facilities operating across various specialties. However, these challenges can be overcome by putting some successful troubleshooting methods in place. Here are five tried and tested ways of enhancing RCM for improved output:
Table of Contents
Make an introductory pre-admission contact with the patient
Contact the patient before their visit by phone or email; provide them with printable forms to enter their details. Also, explain to them how payments are collected and processed, and the time taken for the same. This greatly prevents registration errors and confusions regarding the payment process at the time of appointment.
Read – Role of medical billing software in RCM services
Incorporate software solutions to improve the revenue cycle
Efficient clinic management software such as AdvancedMD allows medical establishments and individual doctors to effectively streamline their revenue management processes such as billing, claim filing, payment management, appointment scheduling and more—all on the same platform. However, running and managing complex software like Advanced MD can prove to be a herculean and costly affair, especially for those who are not trained in handling such complex software. This is where Practolytics, the largest partner of Advanced MD, can help healthcare facilities in reaping the benefits of advanced RCM software without having to deal with the nitty-gritty of software set-up and management and minus the cost of software purchase, installation, customisation, staff training and in-house billers.
Have an in-house care coordinator
Appointing care coordinators can help clinicians in understanding the concerns and challenges faced by the patient better. In addition, having health coordinators conveys a sense of care and seriousness towards patients’ concerns, telling them that you care for them and how they feel about their health. This would help in enhancing patient trust and creating a loyal client base.
Adopt updated coding practices
Adoption of coding practices will aid in generating higher revenues and decreasing claim denials from insurance companies. By achieving optimal coding compliances, a healthcare facility can prevent disruption of the medical flow and avoid regulatory penalties. While these processes are tough to manage in-house, handing it over to experts and professionals such as Practolytics who offer end-to-end services in clinic management including one-stop revenue-cycle-management solution can greatly enhance the revenue output and ensure compliance with policies and procedures.
Regularly monitor the key statistics
Constantly observe the discrepancies in claims filing and billing processes to identify potential issues beforehand and resolve them in a timely manner. For instance, monitor claims denials and the reasons for that, the time taken for bill settlement and how often patients skip their appointments despite repeated reminders. Does it sound like a cumbersome task amid your busy patient care schedule? You can always outsource the task to the experts such as Practolytics who use high-end technology and software for revenue cycle management. By handing the task over to the professionals, you can focus on your core expertise and not be bothered by the micro-management of your healthcare business’s medical billing and coding systems.
Read – 10 Ways to Improve Your Billing Process
Conclusion
A few small steps in the right direction can take you a long way in effective and efficient RCM. A well-established and streamlined RCM process means seamless revenue generation and the good financial health of your business. And partnering with the best in the industry can save you time, energy and money without compromising on the quality of clinic management and patient care.
If you too want to make the best of advanced RCM solutions and reap the benefits of an efficient clinic management system, then call Practolytics today. Practolytics offers the entire range of RCM services through AdvancedMD without making their clients pay anything extra for support services.
Click here to know more!
