By Frank Travis
Jully 07, 2022
An effective revenue cycle management plays an integral role in ensuring profitability and sustenance of a medical practice. Unfortunately, medical practices are constantly challenged in maintaining a strong revenue cycle management approach. From dealing with billing errors and IT setbacks to lack of trained staff and staying up-to-date with compliance standards, physicians face multiple challenges. A recent study conducted by the Advisory Board reveals that days in AR have progressively gotten worse even in high performing hospitals since 2011. Well, outsourcing your revenue cycle management services is the right thing to do to reduce AR days and improve the overall cash flow and financial position of your practice.
Reasons to outsource revenue cycle management services
More and more medical practices are opting to outsource their RCM services due to the various challenges that outsourcing would solve. The following are some of the great reasons to allow an outside revenue cycle management company to manage your finances.
Focus on better patient care
The revenue cycle management process is a complex, labor-intensive and time-consuming one. Constantly monitoring this complex process will distract the time and attention that patients expect. As a health care provider, you need to focus on providing quality care and improving patient experience and not on managing money. In this patient-centric world where patient engagement and experience are crucial outsourcing helps you to improve patient care and experience. Having your RCM handled by experts will help you stay focused on providing quality care instead of billing and administrative tasks.
Reduce operating costs
Staff cost accounts for as much as 70% of the total business costs. Maintaining your RCM operations in-house is not only a costly affair but also involves much of your time and effort. You will have to hire full-time skilled personnel and provide for additional expenses like office space, technology, tools, ongoing training, benefits, payroll, vacation hours, and much more. However, if you choose to outsource your RCM needs you need not worry about all this. You will get access to high-quality services at cost-effective prices.
Timely reimbursements
Partnering with professional RCM companies who work round-the-clock in processing your reimbursements ensures that you get paid for the medical services you provided, quickly and in full. Right from verifying patient eligibility, to coding, reviewing, and submitting claims for smooth processing they take care of each and every process to get the full money you owe. Hence, by entrusting your RCM process to an expert you can focus on providing patient care alone without having to worry about the financial aspect of running your practice.
Error-free billing
Billing errors can negatively impact your practice’s bottom line. Improper coding leads to improper billing, all of which will significantly affect your practice revenue. With a team of highly-trained RCM specialists and the latest technology, there is no room for entering incorrect patient names or codes. This ensures the submission of cleaner claims that are quickly processed by the payers. RCM companies also continuously provide training to hone their skills to ensure error-free and precise billing, which helps to maximize your medical practice’s reputation.
Maintain compliance and regulatory standards
A revenue cycle management outsourcing company ensures your practice maintains regulatory compliance as they have experience in the field. They stay on top of everything – right from federal mandates to industry regulations and payers policies to ensure compliance. Hence, healthcare providers need not worry about regulatory changes and compliance issues. This also helps you stay clear of fines and penalties for regulatory non-compliance. Most importantly, with RCM experts keeping tabs on compliance allows you to focus entirely on patient care.
Improve cash flow
Uninterrupted cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, but it is especially crucial and a constant challenge for medical practices. If you are doing it in-house and your staff has taken time off from work for several days, it will definitely interrupt your revenue cycle process. By outsourcing your revenue cycle process to experts in the field you can ensure a smooth and predictable cash flow. As claims and billing will be taken care of round-the-clock by the outsourced companies, it improves cash flow and ultimately your revenue.
Avoid staffing issues
Managing an in-house revenue cycle management team is not easy as it may seem. You need to hire, train, and retrain them in order to sharpen their skills and ensure that they stay up-to-date with the new regulations, codes, and payer rules. Pairing up with an experienced revenue cycle management company solves all such staffing issues. Most importantly, outsourcing RCM helps to avoid challenges like costly staffing turnover, staffing shortage, and retaining talent.
If you are a healthcare provider contemplating whether to go for an in-house RCM concept or outsource it, you can now decide which route to take. Yes, an effective revenue cycle management strategy is one that adapts to the changing demands of a healthcare environment. Hiring the services of an industry expert like Scribe4Me for your RCM needs ensures they have the expertise and the resources to submit cleaner claims to the payers and get paid on time. You also have the flexibility to either opt for a full-featured package or as a standalone service. To learn more fill in the inquiry form and send us today. We will get back to you within 24 hours, with more details.
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Frank Travis
Haley Holmes
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