Your practice’s revenue cycle management is the process of collecting, tracking, and reporting on your payments from patients and payers. If you’re not collecting 100 percent of your revenue, it’s not only costing you money—it’s also hurting your reputation with patients who may decide to go elsewhere when they have a choice. Even worse, failing to collect all of the money due to your practice can result in penalties and potential legal action if one of your patients ends up having trouble paying for something.
Many practices make the mistake of assuming that if they collect patient-pay and insurance payments prior to a procedure, they will have no remaining receivables. But a successful practice must look at the following three key factors to implementing a successful revenue cycle management process:
To manage the revenue cycle more effectively, there are three key factors to keep in mind:
- Revenue management
- Eliminating A/R
- A/R management
Revenue Management
Revenue management is the process of managing the amount of money that a business receives from customers. it’s important that you know how a practice’s revenue management works and how it affects the patient’s access to care.
Eliminating A/R
A/R management is an important aspect of your practice that helps you collect your accounts receivable. Effective A/R management can significantly improve the cash flow in your practice.
While many practices focus their time and effort on bringing in new referrals, it is equally important to spend some time managing the accounts receivable process so that all of your hard work will be rewarded.
A/R management
A/R management is an important part of running a practice. If you are not collecting your revenue, then you will have problems paying your bills. The first thing that you need to do is understand why the A/R is not being collected. It could be because of any number of reasons such as:
- The patient does not have the money to pay
- Your invoices sent out are too complicated or confusing
- You haven’t been sending out reminders when they were due.
To address these problems and get those claims paid, there are some steps that you can take:
- Keep track of all unpaid claims so that they don’t get lost among other papers in your office – this will help prevent late payments from happening again.
- Be sure that anyone working on billing understands how important it is for them to send out claims about upcoming deadlines for payment before time runs out for collection purposes; otherwise, there won’t be anything left in their accounts at all! Remember also never let any items go past 180 days without sending out reminders–this usually results in more debt collectors coming after us later down the road which costs more money than simply doing things correctly upfront.”
The best way to ensure you are collecting every cent of your revenue is by using an efficient and effective revenue cycle management solution.
When it comes to revenue cycle management, there’s no such thing as “good enough.” The best way to ensure you are collecting every cent of your revenue is by using an efficient and effective revenue cycle management solution.
A good quality revenue cycle management system will help you:
- Automate processes in order to house more patients and increase revenues
- Reduce expenses and increase patient satisfaction through better communications between the front desk, doctor offices, and back office staff
- Improve productivity by streamlining workflows across multiple locations
Conclusion
The key to successful revenue cycle management is understanding the three factors of revenue management, eliminating accounts receivable, and A/R management. These are all critical processes that must be in place in order for any practice or business to maximize the potential of its collections and stay profitable.
]]>
Why Is Patient Engagement Important in Your Medical Practice? Given the increasing penetration of consumer-driven technology in healthcare – for example, mobile devices – providers recognize that connecting with existing patients via digital technologies can improve overall satisfaction.
According to a study on patients and technology, there is more agreement than ever before on engagement:
- According to 76% of patients, technology has the potential to improve their health.
- Patient engagement is beneficial to 84 percent of physicians.
- Patients who are technologically engaged have 15% fewer hospital readmissions than their peers.
- Those same engaged patients had a 17 percent lower rate of medical errors.
Despite these trends, concerns about fee-for-service reimbursement continue to dominate providers’ decisions about whether or not to invest in engagement-focused technologies. According to the same study, 75 percent of physicians believe that a lack of reimbursement is a barrier to using secure messaging, and 42 percent believe that there is “insufficient payment for patient engagement” in general.
They are correct from the standpoint of medical billing. Aside from EHR incentives, ACO participation, and potential MIPS and MACRA payouts, providers receive little direct monetary reward for investing in engagement-driving technologies. However, ROI is more than just rewards, and the true reality of financial incentives is a little more nuanced.
Recognizing the link Between Patient Engagement and Insurance Reimbursement:
Providers and medical practice managers may not expect a return on their financial investment in digital engagement, but it is a significant source of long-term ROI for more than just patient outcomes. According to the aforementioned study, 76 percent of healthcare leaders polled saw a positive ROI from personalization technologies like text messaging, email, mobile apps, and other digital engagement efforts.
The consequences are twofold. In a nutshell, digital-first thinking is beneficial to practices in terms of marketing. They can bring in up to 20% more patients to their practices by using online scheduling and improving their online presence. Personalized appointment reminders significantly reduce no-shows, increasing per-physician revenue. High-touch engagement also makes it easier to follow up with patients on treatment adherence and future appointments.
Then there’s the more intangible impact that engagement can have on reimbursement, which stems from fostering a stronger relationship between a medical establishment and its patient base.
Consider the following: Nine out of ten patients want to share decision-making with their provider, and two-thirds would switch providers for online access to medical records. Which of these groups do you believe is more likely to receive timely, in-full payments from loyal patients: a practice with a digital engagement strategy or one that has refused to make the necessary technology investments?By handling the billing and coding process to a reputable medical billing company, your practice can concentrate its efforts on providing your patients with the most seamless healthcare experience possible. WWS has been assisting practices in the implementation of technology solutions to improve revenue cycle management.
]]>