In Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), you have to understand that there is nothing such as Revenue Management ‘Mantra’ that will help you increase the financial health of your healthcare organization. RCM is a process, not a product that will work according to prescribed commands. To improve on the financial efficiencies of your healthcare organization, you need to have a perfect strategy and bare a cost behind its implementation, or you just have to look for the perfect outsourcing partner with well defined Revenue Cycle Management Strategy and infrastructure.
Most of the healthcare leaders consider outsourcing the Revenue Cycle Management process to reduce spending and focus on value-based care initiatives, and others simply assume that the cost of outsourcing the billing operations would be more expensive than doing the billing in-house (cutting costs and improving efficiencies within a healthcare organization is easier said than done).
Benefits of RCM outsourcing are listed below:
Focus on Patient Care: Outsourcing Revenue Management Cycle to a well-experienced partner will help healthcare providers keep tabs on compliance rules and enable them to focus on proper patient care. Continuously monitoring on RCM will only distract healthcare providers from maintaining high standards of care distribution, and medical diagnosis.
Manage Staff: Reliable RCM partner taking care of day- to- day RCM activities like billing, reimbursements, registrations, and patient check-in/check-out, the healthcare facility can reduce the burden on staff. Managing with fewer staff members will allow providers to focus on their medical practice and network with other professionals.
Timely Reimbursements: With professional RCM partner/billing agents working round the clock for you, can ensure timely reimbursements. As they do not handle any other medical functions, they only focus on collecting and verifying all details of patient enrollment, checking on insurance, documenting the diagnosis and treatment, and giving the correct medical codes. When this all is done, then billing agents can provide an exact picture of the dues comprehended at consistent intervals. This helps healthcare providers have a complete look at their earnings in real-time.
Fewer Interruptions in Cash Flows: RCM outsourcing partners are equipped with software and hardware solutions to handle the huge amount of billing. Once the expected documents are received from the providers, medical billing is done, and all procedures like insurance verification and AR collections are followed up within a day or two. This provides a huge scope to improve cash flow.
Reduced Billing Errors: With well-trained staff and the latest technology in hand, outsourcing RCM partner will never commit standard billing errors like entering the incorrect name of the patient, and wrong CPT codes. Complete error-free billing helps healthcare providers improve their reputation.
Maintaining Regulatory Compliance: In-house billing may not provide you with constant information on regulatory changes and compliance issues. An outsourcing RCM partner will introduce administrative workflows that guarantee compliance activities. A healthcare provider will not need to worry about industry regulations, payer policies, and compliance
Improve Reimbursements – Having a stack on professional experts for billing and coding helps improve reimbursement rate. An RCM outsourcing partner can apply the correct coding and rules, resulting in better refunds.
Enhanced Monthly Cash Flow – Think of a situation, when your hospital staff is on vacation; what will happen to your RCM process? RCM function will be affected, as the claims have to wait until your staff returns and works on it. Interruption in the billing process will affect timely reimbursements and indirect cash flow in the healthcare facility. Outsourcing to an RCM partner will ensure a steady revenue cycle and enhance cash flow.
Account Receivables (A/R): An effective RCM partner helps healthcare providers follow up AR settlements from insurance providers. Outsourcing to an RCM partner who has an expert team of A/R specialists, working with several insurance firms and are conversant with policy handling, can ensure streamlined payment and outcomes.
Stronger Financial Performance: RCM outsourcing helps you obtain payments that you are legally permitted to collect, leading to an increase in revenues with the reduced overhead cost of in-house billing team salaries, expenditure on office equipment and technology upgrades, outsourcing.
Managing in-house RCM operations can be expensive, as it requires committed employees. Shifting this operating cost to an outsourced RCM partner can save your expenses, and time associated with boosting profitability.
Maintaining an in-house RCM operation requires the latest infrastructure and resources, as well as technology and investment.
Wrapping up in short
As a healthcare provider or a decision-making authority, you might be perfecting in an in-house Revenue Cycle Management Strategy, but by now it should be clear that a successful Revenue Cycle Strategy is one that is continuously evolving to meet the needs of a rapidly changing healthcare environment. The benefits of outsourcing the RCM process can transform and improve your financial health. It will also give you extra bandwidth to focus more on your business – offering quality healthcare.
If you are considering outsourcing your revenue cycle management functions, and are likely wondering where to start? Don’t worry – you are in the right place –
iPatientCare, is a leading provider in transforming RCM services by FREE Cloud-based Meaningful Use Stage-3 certified EHR and PMS technology. It provides efficient, responsive, and accountable billing implementation and back-office services that gives more than 98% first-pass claims submission and efficient A/R follow-up/denial management at very competitive rates. To learn more visit iPatientCare’s Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management.
