8 Ways to Improve Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare

Revenue cycle management is an intricate, complex process that is essential to running a profitable medical practice. Medical billing errors are expensive and can negatively impact practice profitability. Even small errors – such as missing or incorrect codes – can have drastic financial repercussions. If claims sent to insurers aren’t properly coded, practices may not receive reimbursements in a timely manner. 

Providers are busy and their time is stretched thin, which means they don’t always have time to research and log accurate and comprehensive billing codes for all the care they deliver during an encounter. It doesn’t help that there are 100,000 different ICD-10 and CPT codes – all of which are updated annually based on new coding rules.

To avoid missing out on billing opportunities, here are eight ways to improve revenue cycle management for medical practices and healthcare organizations of all sizes and specialties.

 

How Can a Healthcare Organization Improve its Revenue Cycle Management?

Medical practices of all sizes strive to continually improve their revenue cycle management. Here are eight ways that healthcare organizations can hone the process: 

  1. Hire Knowledgeable Medical Coding and Billing Specialists: There are currently around 100,000 medical codes that classify different diagnoses and procedures. Professional medical coding and billing staff are specialized personnel who earn an average of $45,000 to $64,000 per year plus benefits, according to the AAPC, but it’s worth the investment to reduce accounts receivable and increase cash flow by minimizing coding errors.
  2. Provide Training for Coders: Medical codes are updated annually, which means billing specialists should be informed about new CPT and ICD-10 code changes to ensure accuracy.
  3. Enable Digital Transactions for Patients: Make it as easy as possible for patients to access and pay their bills through a secure online payment portal, like Benchmark Pay. This small addition to your process can reduce your AR and improve the patient experience.
  4. Perform Prior Authorizations: Prior authorizations help guarantee that the medical practice will receive reimbursement for their services before delivering care to the patient. This adds a layer of financial protection to the practice and gives patients peace of mind knowing that they won’t receive a surprise bill after their visit.
  5. Educate Patients about Care Costs: Patients need to understand the full scope of paying responsibilities – especially if there is a chance that their insurance provider won’t cover the services. 
  6. Automate Patient Reminders: No-shows and late arrivals cost the practice money. Medical practices should invest in digital tools that remind patients when their appointments are and when their bills are due. 
  7. Proactively Engage with Insurers: A key component of revenue cycle management is engaging with health plans to confirm patient eligibility for coverage, prior authorizations, and to process claims. Dedicated revenue cycle management personnel are experts in liaising with insurers to follow up on claims and correct and refile if necessary.
  8. Outsource your Revenue Cycle Management: A common misconception about outsourcing revenue cycle management is that it’s a cost-prohibitive service, however it’s actually less expensive than managing billing in-house. Outsourcing your revenue cycle management enables you to hire top coding and collections talent without paying expert-level salaries.

With Benchmark RCM, clients reduce their AR to an average of under 30 days and minimize error rates, resulting in a 98% Clean Claims Rate.

Benchmark RCM specialists are experienced and dedicated revenue cycle management experts. We incorporate all eight of these best practices and more in our RCM processes. Our team can handle account and denial management, data entry, reviewing codes, and minimizing errors so medical practices get paid faster and improve overall profitability.

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