How a healthcare practice manages patient self-pay accounts, payer reimbursements, and collections is a key factor in its financial health. Unfortunately, most health practitioners lack the time, experience, tools, and technologies to complete these tasks — or at least to perform them quickly and efficiently — which puts a strain on the revenue stream.
A revenue cycle management (RCM) partner can optimize these RCM processes and directly affect your bottom line.
The challenges of RCM
By its very nature, RCM is a complicated process. It exists at every stage of the patient journey, and each complexity — from changing regulations and shifting contractual obligations to updated payer policies and new technologies — adds to the difficulty. Besides these challenges, other persistent RCM obstacles exist:
- Most bills aren’t processed at the point of service, which means they must pass through several touchpoints from provider to patient to payer.
- Patients face high medical costs and high deductibles. If the money isn’t available, how can providers enforce payment adherence?
- Medical coding is arduously complex and always changing, especially in the age of telehealth. Even simple mistakes result in denied or delayed claims.
This wide range of RCM problems can lead to lost revenue if the issues are not remediated. It’s a constant, uphill battle, which is why many providers don’t think twice about outsourcing RCM.
The benefits of partnering with an RCM company
Today’s healthcare providers find tackling RCM concerns is easier with help from the right partner. By outsourcing all potential touchpoints — including scheduling, patient registration, payment collection, and all aspects related to accounts receivable — providers can avoid costly inefficiencies.
Outsourcing processes to RCM experts throughout all stages of a patient’s journey helps healthcare providers achieve and maintain healthy revenue cycles. An RCM partner can create a personalized end-to-end approach, from patient registration all the way to final payment, to standardize payment processing, reconciliation, and denials management.
A reliable RCM partner allows providers to focus on providing quality patient care while reaping the following benefits:
- Maximizing claims reimbursements
- Reducing the overall cost to collect
- Reducing errors and maintaining compliance
- Correcting financial and clinical inefficiencies
Finding the right outsourcing partner
What should healthcare providers look for in an RCM partner? Besides working within your budget, search for partners who understand your marketplace. Research reviews and seek transparency in practices. It’s also helpful to consider their denial management strategy so you can keep denial rates low and generate more revenue.
Above all, the partner you select should offer solutions customizable to your practice and goals. By working with a forward-looking partner who understands new technologies, RCM improvements, and efficiencies, you can focus on caring for your patients rather than worrying about getting paid.
Delegate RCM to someone who can do it better
Often, the simplest way to improve revenue cycle management at a practice is to recognize your strengths. Physicians are good at administering services and facilitating a positive patient experience. Likewise, a revenue cycle management partner focuses solely on ensuring invoices are paid and money continually comes through the door. There’s no shame in identifying an opportunity to delegate. In doing so, you’re likely to discover you can focus more on what you do best without any repercussions.
Explore the benefits of expert revenue cycle management at trubridge.com.
