How to Stay on Top of Your Revenue Cycle Management

There are many tasks that come with operating a healthcare practice, and one of those is revenue cycle management (RCM). RCM is the strategy that healthcare organizations implement to pay their bills, and it is crucial to the financial success of a practice. With changes in the revenue cycle and technological advancements, you want to be sure that you’re doing everything to help your practice succeed financially. Whether you are handling your revenue cycle management on your own or receiving help, here are some ways you can stay on top of revenue cycle management:

Communicate effectively with patients about billing

If you want to ensure that you will get paid on time, do more than just send a bill by mail to the patient. Sometimes patients may need explanations on what or why they owe, or they may just need an extra reminder. Communicating with them by phone, in addition to mail, prevents confusion and can benefit your practice.

Follow up on denied claims

Many practices leave denied claims alone and don’t follow up on them. These practices are missing out on potential revenue opportunities when they don’t follow up on denied claims. It may not be sensible to follow up on every single denied claim, but it isn’t helping your practice by leaving them alone either.

Provide your patients with multiple payment options

Multiple payment options mean that patients are more likely to get bills paid on time, or at least paid. The convenience of various payment options also enhances the experience of the patient. In addition to traditional payment methods, consider also offering online payment or pay-by-phone options.

Try to avoid billing collection errors

Medical billing errors can lead to denied claims. These errors include misspellings, coding errors, and patient ineligibility. Having a thorough claim review process can help prevent mistakes like these and thus improve your revenue cycle management.

Communicate regularly with your staff

If your staff is handling all your revenue cycle management, then you want to make sure they are trained to deal with patients who are impatient. They need to be prepared to handle such patients in a reasonable but effective manner. Your staff also need to stay current on industry changes. They also need to learn ways to improve or speed up your practice’s RCM.

Make sure that you’re using the right technology

These days, technology is everywhere. Healthcare organizations are trying to keep up with the current technological advances in order not to seem outdated. Make sure that your practice is using the most current digital capabilities. Patients should be able to pay bills in the office in other formats besides checks or cash. You should also offer online payment options. You should also be using the most current credentialing software. When you are using the best and most updated technology, there is less chance for human error, and this improves revenue cycle management.

Monitor the time bills spend in accounts receivable

Lowering the number of days in your accounts receivable can help make your revenue cycle management protocols run more efficiently. This will also lessen the chances of claim denials, which will help your practice overall.

Improve your patient registration process

Creating and following a specific list of steps for registration will help ensure that the registrations process goes smoothly and claims will not get rejected. Be sure to verify the patient’s insurance coverage in the office rather than trying to confirm after they have left. The majority of rejected claims come from incorrect or unverified information in the system.

Know when to outsource your revenue cycle management

Some practices or organizations may need to outsource their RCM. Many places are hesitant to do this because they think outsourcing will affect existing jobs at the practice. Not only will outsourcing not take away existing jobs, but it relieves administrative assistants of a lot of time-consuming work. Hence, they can put more effort and focus on other tasks. Furthermore, through outsourcing, your practice can devote more time to patient care. Many practices are outsourcing their revenue cycle management responsibilities and are pleased with the results that they are seeing.

If you own a healthcare organization or practice in or around Raleigh, North Carolina, or live in the area and are interested in utilizing our services, please contact us by email or by phone.