Today’s Challenges for Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare Systems

Today’s Challenges for Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare Systems

Today’s Challenges for Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare Systems

September 1, 2022

Revenue Cycle Management
Revenue cycle management is at the core of any health care service provider’s sustained existence and growth. The revenue cycle management process keeps track of patients and the revenue side of their treatment. Healthcare providers may make use of standalone revenue cycle management software or incorporate it into their medical appointment software or plug it into the EHR system. Regardless, it plays a crucial role and covers various steps.

  • Steps in the revenue management process
  • The hospital revenue cycle management process covers:
  • Pre-registration of a patient
  • Registration
  • Charge capture
  • Claim submission
  • Remittance processing
  • Insurance follow up
  • Patient collection

There is more by way of gathering data, analyzing it and deriving information that helps to identify weak spots and bottlenecks. The RCM system is complex and needs a thorough grasp of how it works for operators to derive the optimum benefit and overcome inherent challenges in the revenue cycle management. According to Advisory Board, hospitals can lose about $22 million without having an accurate and efficient RCM in place.

Training personnel

This is a key but often neglected area. Personnel who use the RCM software often have to learn it on their own and barely get past the essentials. Knowledge of medical coding as applicable to that region is crucial at the preregistration stage and in subsequent billing stages. This involves a learning curve for which time is required. Due to this some service providers may consider outsourcing to a revenue cycle management company. Coding a medical claim can take hours and needs knowledge that in-house personnel may lack and, therefore it may seem appropriate to hand over revenue cycle management process to expert revenue cycle management services. It also entails additional expenditure so, for the long term, it is best to introduce a degree of automation at the pre-registration stage and put in efforts to get personnel to undergo systematic training, possibly by revenue cycle management consultants. If there is no precise coding then the billing will not be accurate and it results in a loss as well as delays in reimbursement. With training your personnel can overcome bottlenecks of coding, set up the hospital’s charge master and capture charges in addition to being better placed to inform patients about all that is involved right before they register.

Technology implementation

Administrators and doctors in hospitals may not be familiar with how technologies work. Technology may be implemented in a piecemeal fashion with medical appointment software, EHR and revenue cycle management software working in parallel and in isolation. There is no connect between the data in each path and that poses challenges of streamlining operations and keeping tabs. It also becomes cumbersome for doctors or those in charge of RCM to refer to each and concatenate results leading to errors of commission and omission obviously to the financial detriment of the healthcare service. The smart thing to do is to engage expert revenue cycle management vendors or get revenue cycle management solution providers to integrate all disparate streams to be usable through a single interface. If usability improves it aids efficiency and personnel will make optimal use to enhance operations across the board from start to finish of the cycle.

The gaps addressed

Coding is just one part that could pose an immense challenge in the revenue cycle management process. There are others that affect smooth cash flow.

  • It is vital for healthcare service providers to get their doctors accredited with insurance companies to avoid situations in which claims can be withheld on that ground. Overlooking this step can be a problem but it is easily taken care of with due attention right from the start when a doctor is going to be assigned to treat patients.
  • The preregistration is a crucial step in which several key information can be missed such as insurance information and eligibility as well as financial expectations of the patient and payment modes as well. One needs to meticulously gather data at this stage.
  • The registration step of the revenue cycle management process is another step that can face challenges due to inaccurate information and non-collection of advance payments and assigning insurance benefits as well as determining eligibility and amount.
  • Missing charges is another challenge. Charge capture may be done through manual input of data or automated. Regardless, some charges such as ancillary services may be missed and if recovery is attempted at a later date then a refusal is likely. Revenue cycle management consultants could possibly help address this gap through measures like claims scrubbing technology to ensure coding is done right.
  • Claims submitted to the insurance payer may not be in full conformity and this is also dependent on charge capture. Errors here may lead to refusal or delays. The solution is to vet each thoroughly and then track claims in real time to ensure only clean claims go through.

Accounts receivables, payments

It is often assumed that claims will be paid in full but that may not be the case. Insurance may pay less than expected and then it is for the healthcare provider to pursue the patient to pay the difference. Not paying attention to this could lead a mounting deficit. This deficiency can be overcome through the use of the right RCM system and by making the personnel aware about keeping track or, better, still, automating the system to send out a bill/reminder to patients fro such payments.

Data analytics

One must know how to analyze data derived from the revenue cycle management process, an area in which medical personnel may not be interested or capable of handling. It is essential that healthcare service providers know about key performance indicators and to keep watch over receivables as well as expenses and generate reports. Engaging revenue cycle management

consultants could bring your personnel up to speed in these areas. The RCM system generates and keeps on generating data that can be analyzed to derive useful information about revenue generation, reduce delays and address issues that affect processing. This is a challenge but training and familiarity through regular use of the revenue cycle management software by assigned personnel will deliver positive outcomes.

These are just a few challenges, mostly on the operational side but there will be others too such as software and hardware glitches from time to time. Retaining revenue cycle management consultants is one way to minimize and overcome challenges and ensure you get the most out of your investment in RCM software. Get in touch with OmniMD to resolve all such challenges and be prepared for future ones.

 

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Importance of Tech Optimization in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

Importance of Tech Optimization in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

Importance of Tech Optimization in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

September 1, 2022

Improving Revenue Cycle Management
Boosting Revenue Cycle Management through Tech Optimization Techniques

There are street cars optimized across various performance characteristics but not excelling in any one. Then there are racing cars with fine-tuned engines, suspension and handling to excel in performance. This analogy can be carried forward to health care services IT solutions and their key performance metrics such as patient services and revenue generation. Given that technology forms the underpinnings of most operations of hospitals, their performance depends to a large extent on optimization and use of various such technologies like revenue cycle management software, EHR systems and medical appointment software, to name a few. Each can work in isolation and give results but optimization can result in resonance that will amplify outcomes. Take a look at the avenues of tech optimization to boost revenue cycle management

Identifying the pivot

The revenue cycle management process comprises of several steps and the revenue cycle management software must work alongside other software if it is not installed as an integrated revenue cycle management solution covering EHR and medical appointment software as well as financial accounting packages. In order to optimize revenue cycle management you would first need to identify and focus on a pivot around which the other tech can be optimized. It is for hospital management and for doctors to decide on a core pivot, possibly in consultation with revenue cycle management consultants and revenue cycle management vendors as to which aspect should form the pivot. The RCM system makes for a good starting point since it incorporates vital processes from start to finish. However, there may still be other issues like interoperability.  

Interoperability 

Most healthcare services do not start with a bang; they grow and, along the way, incorporate solutions such as patient medical records and EHR, financial package, hospital information systems and EDI systems. One must also consider porting to clearing houses for insurance claims being part of the overall hospital revenue cycle process. These are implemented over time possibly through different vendors and work in isolation. Different operators may handle different software and solutions and the lack of connect between all these could translate to operational inefficiencies and that, in turn, affects revenue flows. Even the revenue cycle management software cannot deliver the best when working as a standalone unit. It pays to integrate all these standalone solutions and get them to be interoperable, possibly with the help of revenue cycle management vendors and revenue cycle management consultants working in tandem. Should these diverse systems be patched together or should you scrap them all and go in for an entirely new suite of comprehensive custom hospital revenue cycle management solution that works in the cloud? 

A single dashboard revenue cycle management solution that ties in other packages like appointments and financials as well as tracking remote workers and giving them access as well as giving access to patients certainly results in reduced errors, faster processing and efficiency. Possibly revenue cycle management vendors could set up robotic automation, scripts and web apps to reduce task switching and improve productivity that will in turn boost revenues.

The end goal is to make processes convenient for doctors, administrators and patients and to offer accuracy as well as seamless automated integration. Optimization, you will find, is an incremental and iterative process across the various modules. RCM experts can help to continue with this iterative and agile fine tuning process. 

Data analytics, speed and transparency

The sub-components of revenue cycle management processes are interdependent and contribute to the iterative fine tuning process to boost revenue cycle management. Once systems are integrated you get access to cohesive data that lends itself to better analytics. Analytics can show up insights for improvements that can, when implemented, speed up various processes, especially that of debt collection and also contribute to transparency. Speeding up iterations based on feedbacks leads to further improvements and so on in the revenue cycle management process.

The patient side

Patients are the primary source of revenue. Optimizing the patient side of operations improves the user experience. Tech optimization can be implemented across areas such as incorporating convenient payment gateways, permitting patients to choose pricing and payment plans, access to support from other sources and knowing exactly how much they will pay for services. Health care services that incorporate these optimizations in revenue cycle management process benefit by loyalty, referrals, faster and timely payments and excellent relationships. 

Remote workers 

Post the pandemic and given the rise of telehealth and cloud based healthcare services, remote workers are just as important as in-house employees are to the hospital revenue management processes. In fact, according to a survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, telehealth utilization has increased by 38 times compared to pre-pandemic situation.  Hence, it is essential to keeping a track of them and facilitate their work to boosts revenue cycles.  

Data based decisions 

Tech optimization and integration of digital technologies in use in healthcare leads to synchronization of data and improves its quality based on which the right business decisions can be made. Data and its analytics show up problems clearly and that is the first step to solutions. Incorporating AI and ML could further automate intelligent analytics and give predictive capabilities in decision making. Here again you could get RCM experts to update existing RCM software with these inclusions.  

To sum it up, tech optimization of the revenue cycle management process, given the current scenario needs to address core issues such as: 

  • Revamp or modification of the revenue cycle management process and also the software 
  • Fine tune RCM billing system and tie it together with lateral and vertical solutions like medical records and insurance clearing houses.  
  • Fine tune the existing RCM system to maximize ROI 
  • Incorporate analytics, AI/ML and predictive capabilities to empower intelligent decision making.  
  • Keep measuring gains such as successful claim submission and payment rates and speed of cashflow as well as reduction of outstanding.  

Optimization of a hospital revenue cycle management also requires the right mindset and the need for appointing an administrator to oversee the process, one who is conversant with technologies and can work in collaboration with RCM experts to take it forward. For startups, it is relatively easy: they can engage revenue cycle management consultants to get off on the right foot but for existing healthcare services that currently use diverse solutions it takes a little bit more time and effort but it is well worth it.  

 Boost hospital revenue cycle growth by advancing overall efficiency through tech optimization. Call in OmniMD experts for tech optimization and see the results that ensue.

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