Is Your Revenue Cycle Team Exhausted?

Staffing Risk Mitigation Strategies for Healthcare Systems

The major challenges that an RCM CFO has to look over include investments in upgrades, automation, and the right technology, management of the declining reimbursements, and finding qualified personnel who fit well into the revenue cycle process. Now, this could get arduous but there is nothing that a strategic plan can’t help.

This article talks about the causes of manpower shortage in the revenue cycle and how outsourcing could benefit them.

THE ISSUE

Revenue Cycle Staff Burnouts

The emergence of the pandemic has led many industries with manpower reliability to face staff scarcity. Although the management is seeking solutions and strategies that could help mitigate this very issue, the shortage is not going anywhere. CFOs and Operations Managers have brought in some serious changes including increased wages, reliability on outsourced and remote workers, incorporation of robotic process automation, and engaging newer talents through sign-in bonuses.

Healthcare systems had to lay off several RCM staff, as they saw a reduction in the patient volumes and now the rehiring process seems next to impossible. Most of these employees made their shift to retail and non-traditional healthcare industries for better pay.

The other massive threat to the sustainability of healthcare systems is the piling up of accounts receivables along with unfiled claims that could lead to another major crisis. The staggering and unpredictable pandemic has called upon ad-hoc layoffs which have ultimately led to backlogs in the system.

Leaders are now involved in investments in automation and relevant tools to put the massive workload pressure off the prevailing employees. Mitigating staff burnout is very crucial to health systems and they must address it with complete authenticity and engagement to ensure an efficient and streamlined RCM process.

Physician Burnout

Physicians had to work around the clock to support patients with mission-critical services during the pandemic. Patients who once denied elective treatments and chose not to visit healthcare facilities are now opting for the same, bringing in the increased need for physicians.

“Over 40% of physicians accept their burnout”

The reasons for this deprivation include the unavailability of digital tools in clinics, time needed on documentation and coding, relentless government regulations, and more working hours to keep up with the rising demands. These issues can also be resolved through staff augmentation and investment in digital transformation. But at present, the healthcare systems CFOs are facing the unusual situation where they lack money for investments in advancements and their unavailability of resources to help them find the revenue for investment.

WHAT MUST BE DONE?

Outsourcing is the keyword.

What is Revenue Cycle Outsourcing?

Outsourcing your RCM refers to shifting the revenue cycle process to external expertise for effective management and processing of physician documentation, medical coding, medical billing, claims submission, denials management, and payment posting. It will help hospitals and healthcare organizations to focus on what is more important – Patient care.

The outsourced RCM workforce brings high capacity processing of claims backlogs to help bring in best practices to physicians, reducing the time spent on administrative activities and improving collections by plugging revenue leakages.

It radically reduces the total costs spent on RCM processes through an expert-level global workforce, avoiding staff and physician burnout.

How to Choose the Right RCM Partner?

There are numerous misconceptions concerning revenue cycle outsourcing. These beliefs are fuelled by fears of losing control, difficulties in selecting the right partner, and establishing proper structures and frameworks to oversee outsourcing contracts. During the transition and continuous service delivery, a successful revenue cycle partner addresses these difficulties by displaying the following characteristics:

1. Establishes realistic expectations for absorbing revenue cycle volumes.
2. Sets productivity goals and uses technology to manage their personnel.
3. Manages the business using numbers.
4. Exhibits expertise in attracting and developing the right resource.
5. Implements a governance architecture that includes meetings at various levels of your organization on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.
6. Understands the key priorities and seeks to surpass your expectations by leading by example.

These might sound too much, to begin with, but achieving outstanding revenue cycle management is all about applying the right technology, processes, and most of all the right people. It is a team sport with expert participation.

Talk to our team at Practolytics to understand how we can mitigate and improve the practice activities.  We are all ears for any outstanding queries. Reach out to our expert leaders for progressive information.

Call us at +(803) 932-9624 and Write at  [email protected]

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