The financial health of a healthcare organization is determined by the performance of the RCM (Revenue Cycle Management). It has become a huge challenge for Practices to keep the RCM from failing as the healthcare industry shifted from fee-for-service model to value-based models like Alternative Payment Models (APM) and Self-pay in which patients take up more financial responsibility. These payment models have slowed down the patient collections affecting the RCM. Other factors like improper medical billing and coding, claim denials, and AR pile-up have also impacted the RCM badly. Therefore, improving the RCM would be the key solution to streamline a healthcare company’s finances. Let’s learn some tips on enhancing the RCM process:
Smart RCM:
Smart Revenue Cycle Management Software is the key to enhance all the medical billing operations and improve the cash flow. It is also important that the staff are adequately trained so they can work on the software without any hassle. Right from patient registration to patient collections, everything can be streamlined through this software. Using this software, staff can easily verify patients’ insurance benefits, eligibility, resolve outstanding balances, offer price estimation and do much more. The software even prompts the staff on key things that needs immediate action, so there is no delay in any of the operations.
Periodical Auditing:
It is highly essential that healthcare organizations conduct periodical audits to track medical billing operations and collections. Proper AR management is ideal for better revenue generation. Therefore, the billing team should follow up on the aging account receivables and manage them prudently. Tracking payments from secondary and tertiary payers is very important as they may easily go unnoticed. To sum up, it is good to conduct frequent reviews and record the status to enhance the Revenue Cycle Management process.
Establish Payment Plans:
As discussed earlier, alternative payment models like Self-pay has imposed most of the financial responsibility on patients. In the past, healthcare organizations relied on the insurance companies to pay, however that situation has changed now. Henceforth, they have to depend on patients to collect payments. In that case, healthcare organizations should establish payment plans for all patients during the registration process. They should provide flexible payment options to pay and also educate the patients on their financial responsibility so they pay on time once services are provided. This way, RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) can be rationalized.
Outsource:
One of the best solutions to improve RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) is to outsource to experienced medical billing companies. These companies already come loaded with the right technology, software and trained staff. Outsourcing doesn’t mean that they will completely replace a healthcare organization’s workforce. Hospitals will always have the control and they can customize the services offered by medical billing companies as per needs. One of the advantages of outsourcing is that medical billing companies take care of all payer negotiations to ensure better revenue generation. Also, they perform aforementioned operations diligently.
About MGSI:
Healthcare organizations should consider outsourcing to MGSI, a competitive US medical billing company that offers exceptional healthcare services to its clients. Based in Florida, this medical billing company has more than 27 years of experience in streamlining clients’ RCM (Revenue Cycle Management) processes. To learn more details, log on to www.mgsionline.com.