Healthcare is a challenging and constantly changing field, and for those who work in upper management, such as hospital administrators, CEO’s, CFO’s, or CTO’s, navigating this complex arena is part and parcel of the job. One of the most challenging aspects of being in these types of positions is finding the sweet spot between the quality of care provided to each patient and dealing with the costs of taking care of those patients.
Balancing this task is never easy, especially when the cost of healthcare per patient is continually soaring while hospitals simultaneously file for bankruptcy. This can, at least in part, be attributed to inefficiencies, especially where the implementation of effective billing and collection systems are concerned. It is estimated that for every dollar spent, 30 cents of that dollar is never actually collected by the facility and one fifth of all uncollected funds can be attributed to incorrect coding practices or insurance requirements not being met at the outset of treatment.
In order to help with optimizing a healthcare facility’s revenue cycle to its fullest potential, those in senior decision-making positions should seriously consider outsourcing their revenue cycle management. By allowing a trusted third-party provider to provide an RCM solution, hospitals can focus on spending more time on the truly important facets of the job – treating patients and saving lives – instead of dealing with correcting and resubmitting claims.
What Does it Mean to Outsource Revenue Cycle Management?
Outsourcing your hospital’s revenue cycle management means bringing in an outside team to completely handle all of your administrative work where billing, coding, and other non-provider related tasks are concerned. This allows your entire team to focus more on helping people instead of worrying about how they are going to pay for their treatment later.
It is important to thoroughly vet any potential RCM companies before retaining their services, as the nature of this work is highly sensitive and requires a great deal of skill. You want to make certain that the team you are considering hiring is credentialed and experienced in dealing with the needs of large scale facilities.
A qualified revenue cycle management team will enlist a highly skilled team of professionals that can help you with tasks such as:
- Denial Management
- Eligibility Verifications
- Medical Coding Optimization
- Charge Capture and Billing
- Accounts Receivable Follow Up
- Patient Collections
- Claims Review and Submissions
Each one of these is a complex task unto itself, and as such, it should only be taken on by highly qualified and experienced professionals. A quality revenue cycle management company will be certain that all of their staffers are up to date in terms of best practices for medical coding and billing procedures.
How Can Outsourcing Revenue Cycle Management Help a Hospital?
As previously stated, by outsourcing their revenue cycle management, hospitals are able to focus more on patient care and other human resource issues that can affect the hospital’s ability to operate at maximum efficiency. Simply put, many hospitals already are operationally strapped and overworked – if billing does not absolutely need to be done in-house, why place that additional burden on your team?
Furthermore, outsourcing your revenue cycle management should decrease errors related to medical billing and coding, as well as streamline the collections process from patients and their insurance providers. This will help to ensure that all of those funds, a large percentage of which were not being previously collected, will be paid in full.
In short, outsourcing revenue cycle management is partially about improving the efficiency of your hospital’s operational capacity but it is also about improving the lives of each and every one of your patients while they are in your care. Ultimately, the true job of those who work in health care is to provide quality care to people and to restore them to full health so that they can lead their lives once again. By outsourcing your revenue cycle management, hospital staff can truly focus on the issue that matters the most – patient care.
Want to discuss outsourcing to a revenue cycle management company? Get in touch with us today.