Ways to Optimize Your Revenue Cycle In 2022
Revenues in the healthcare industry stand almost as important as it is in any other industry. The healthcare industry is built for the patients and with the sole intention to extend the best possible care for them. Therefore, it is the main objective of any healthcare unit, hospital, clinic, or practice, that houses a physician and healthcare workers, to provide effective physical and mental care to the patients.
However, it is important that the care is served against a fee, which is invested towards the improvement and the benefit of the healthcare facility along with serving as an income for the healthcare workers, doctors, and other staff.
As the medical sector revolves around the revenues it gathers, it is important that it gets what it spends or anticipates. The revenue is what helps the industry thrive and helps others stay healthy and live their lives without any worries. Therefore, it is important that the revenue cycle is managed in the healthcare industry.
What is Healthcare Revenue Cycle and Revenue Cycle Management in Practices?
The revenue cycle can be defined as the sum of all the administrative and clinical functions that is carried out with the sole aim of collecting, capturing, and managing the patient service revenues. In simple words, the revenue cycle is the entire life of a patient account from its creation to the ultimate payment.
If you are wondering what the steps for the revenue cycle are, then there are seven steps with the help of which the cycle can be completed. They are:
The healthcare revenue cycle mainly consists of the above-mentioned steps. Though looking at them most of us can assert that these can be followed but unfortunately the revenue cycle management has been one of the worst of the challenges that the healthcare industry face today.
The healthcare industry has been witnessing a rise in its cost every successive year. This is becoming nothing less than a huge concern for the patients of the world. According to the latest statistical data, nearly one-fifth of all Americans, which makes up a shocking 46 million people, cannot afford adequate healthcare services. Furthermore, when it comes to patients worldwide, around two-thirds of the patients across the globe express concern about their ability to pay the expenses for their healthcare services.
The healthcare expenses have been rising for more than one reason and it shall be curtailed primarily by optimizing the revenue cycle in 2022.
The revenue cycle of the clinics and practices should be managed wisely after monitoring it keenly. The proper optimization of the revenue cycle has been proving to be a major boon in all the industries of now, especially the healthcare industry where revenues are often unprecedented, thereby resulting in the piling of losses.
Revenue cycle management can be defined as the process that is mainly used by the healthcare systems in the United States and around the world, to monitor the revenue that comes from the patients, from their very first appointment phase to their final conclusive phase when they finally make their payments. Healthcare revenue cycle management has become quite significant for the healthcare industry ever since it came into being and has now grown to be an integral part of the health administration.
Optimizing the revenues for the healthcare industry helps to ensure that a healthcare system runs smoothly. Optimizing revenue cycle management is needed not only to provide the optimum care to the patients but to help the practice/clinic run for the best interests of the doctors, nurses, and other staff and healthcare workers.
Optimizing the revenue cycle in healthcare has become necessary for a whole number of reasons now. Healthcare revenue optimization is really important and is something you need to carry out regardless of whether you have a clinic, hospital, or practice.
Why is it necessary to Optimize Revenue Cycle Management?
Optimizing the revenue cycle means introducing the best software and the best healthcare systems that bring about all the trending methods and the most effective ways to help a healthcare unit or a practice run as smoothly and effectively as possible without losing out on its revenues.
Here are some of the primary reasons why the healthcare facilities of now are looking to optimize revenue cycle management:
Loss of revenues
The loss of revenues is the primary factor that drives the practices and clinics of today to look for a thorough optimization of the revenue cycle management. The lack of proper revenue optimization has led to a staggering loss of about $16.3 billion in 2020, and these figures are valid for the United States only, which is simply detrimental, to say the least.
These losses in revenue not only cost much to the practices, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities that incur them but are a de-motivating factor for the whole of the healthcare industry.
A growing number of patients
Patients in healthcare are increasing in numbers. Though the growth of the patients is a huge boon for the industry in general, it also poses constant challenges for the practices and healthcare units and drives them to put up their best performances to serve them continually with the best and the most updated medical office software and systems.
Complex billing processes
The billing process is one of the toughest parts in any industry and more so when it comes to the medical sector. The medical billing process is challenging for sure and it becomes tougher than ever with outdated software and systems in the office. This is where cutting-edge billing software and other medical office systems from GrowPractice come to play. The billing and other systems and software from GrowPractice not only help the practice wipe out their billing-related worries but help them boost their revenues.
A number of departments
Medical facilities, clinics, practices, and healthcare institutions comprise a number of departments under a range of different categories. These departments range from the front desk to the physician's chamber to the waiting rooms, lobby, and more. All of these count for the overall revenue and patient experience. With all these departments in action, it is necessary for a practice to look for the loss of revenues and any other scopes of increasing them too.
Lengthening waits times
Wait times is also a crucial concern for medical practices and clinics. Around 43% of patients are of the opinion that the wait time is the most frustrating part when they visit a doctor. Besides, a majority of 84% of the people believe the wait time they face is 'somewhat important' or 'very important' and is a factor that deeply influences their overall experience at a physician's visit. This easily conveys how important it is for the clinic or practice to look for the optimization in their revenues.
Chaotic workflow
As a medical clinic is a considerably large body deputed for extended health care, the jobs performed in such a facility is also marked by their variety. Chaos seems like an unavoidable reality that occurs in a medical facility but it can be easily avoided with the lessening of the manual labor, proper distribution of work, and the implementation of the customizable workflows for patients offered by GrowPractice.
Providing the care promised
As most of the practices still aim to extend the utmost care to their patients, it is important that they deliver the same. However, in between the practices and the care that they want to deliver stands the lack of revenues. The absence of adequate revenues in a medical clinic or practice deprives the patients form proper care.
Lack of proper implementation of payment methods
The payment method has long seized to be only cash. Nowadays, we have got numerous UPI handles, facilities for check, NEFT, RTGS, online banking, and many other mediums to make the sending and receiving of payments easily and without worries.
Therefore, it is also important for all organizations and merchants to be equipped with the latest payment methods. The practices aren't exceptions to this, which is why it needs to give an eye to the existing payment methods and what it can improve there. GrowPractice has also reinforced its payment arms and extends the most effective digital ways of payment for its partnering practices that will let them collect payments easily via SMS payment links and wipe out all the losses of practice revenue.
The GrowPractice online payments have already started revolutionizing the practices of today and have led to a 20% increase in their collection rates already.
All these are reasons enough for healthcare units to make revenue cycle management a mandatory affair. However, it is not all easy to optimize the revenue cycle at once. Optimizing the RCM in healthcare for clinics and practices is possible with the help of a wise judgment and monitoring all the areas that need improvements. Therefore, if you are confused about healthcare revenue cycle optimization in 2022, then here we have decided on listing the smartest of ways that you can follow to set forth with the same
Effective Ways to Revamp the Revenue Cycle Management Optimization of your Practice!
Revenue cycle management is not a very new concept so it might be existing at your present practice as well, but going by the trends, it can be improved. So, without further ado, here are some smart ways that will help you revamp the medical billing cycle of your practice by optimizing it:
Implement the use of the latest software and systems for billing
The billing process of the earlier days was slow and prone to numerous errors. Around 80% of the manual bills contain errors, according to recent surveys. A majority of these bills were found to include double-billing and under billing issues, which leads to a huge loss in the practice revenues. While some of the bills are also found to be over-billed, which might also lead to face loss and earning an ill-reputation?
All these are reasons enough why the practices need cutting-edge billing software from GrowPractice. The medical software from GrowPractice comes with advanced billing software that makes medical billing a hassle-free practice and leads to the overall growth of practice revenues.
Rely on online booking of patient appointments
Coming right at the first, patient appointments are the most important step that builds the first impression on the patients' minds on how the practice is. A slow, confusing, and dubitable method of booking patient appointments leads to a negative impression, which hampers the patient experience greatly. Therefore, patient appointments are never to be overlooked by medical practices. GrowPractice brings a smart and fully automatic way to make patient appointments an easy affair.
With the effective online patient appointment bookings from GrowPractice, the practices would be able to extend fully online methods to let patients book, cancel, or reschedule their appointments at ease 24*7. Furthermore, they will also get reminders that will help them remember their appointments, thereby dramatically reducing the no-shows.
Customize the patient workflow
In case the patient workflow sounds boring and redundant, you can simply choose to customize it with the help of GrowPractice. Yes, GrowPractice now brings innovative ways of engaging the patients at every step of their journey. One of such practices is the customization of patient workflows.
Use trusted EHR/PM software solutions for the patients
Medical practice management software and Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems are used by numberless practices worldwide but it is important that they are well-trusted to avoid any future hassles. If you are looking for reliable EHR/PM software at your reach, then go with GrowPractice. The company boasts of being equipped with over 65 EHR/PM software solutions that are guarded with multi-layered security, impregnable data encryption, and are driven by HIPAA guidelines.
Embrace online patient intake forms
As soon as a practice is done with its patient appointment and the patient arrives at the medical facility, it is important to register him/her for the reference of the practice. Here, it is essential that the practice uses online patient intake forms. The online patient intake forms that GrowPractice extends the practices are smart, paperless, and effective. Besides, the patients can easily do them online anytime and from anywhere they want.
Nearly 80% of the patients have been found to complete their registration before they visit a practice. The online intake forms will allow them to do just that without any hassles, which would speed up the process and make it patient-centric and error-free.
Go the online way for patient check-ins
Patient check-ins come right next to the patient intake processes and are found to heavily influence the hospital revenues. Wait times are what the patient absolutely and this is why patient check-ins should be fast and online. The paperless, digital form of check-ins that GrowPractice extends, helps the medical service providers ramp up their hospital revenue cycle.
Offer a bunch of payment options
As patient payment methods are diversified now, it is also essential that the practices adopt these new and effective ways of payment. Online patient payments from GrowPractice reduce staff time, minimize delays, boost the rate of collections, and help in effectively optimizing the medical billing cycle.
Communicate with the patients thoroughly
Engaging with the patients is a must for any practice or medical care unit. Here it is true that most of the practices convey the patients the information that is necessary, however, what they fail to do is monitor all that the patients need to say in reply to the same.
This is why GrowPractice now brings an innovative medical office software that would let practices be reinforced with two-way texting facilities, which are secure and HIPAA-compliant. This has been increased the patient satisfaction ratings by a whopping 97%, thereby proving to be a wide stride forward to optimizing the revenue cycle management in the healthcare
Enable the patients to fill patient satisfaction surveys online
Research says that around 60.7% of the patients seek information online via reviews. Online surveys and reviews are thus, heavily influencing the decisions of the patients and others when it comes to healthcare. Therefore, it is always important for practice, clinic, hospital, or a healthcare facility to extend the patients the easiest of the ways to fill their satisfaction surveys online.
GrowPractice makes this practice more than easy for the patients to express what they felt about the medical service provider. Rather than bothering them with repetitive calls and annoying text messages, the online patient satisfaction surveys help the practice get the best of feedbacks about their facility. This online way of surveys helps reduce around 85% of the negative reviews.
GrowPractice is a premium provider of medical office software solutions that innovate the ways for the convenience of the patients and the practices, thereby increasing practice revenues along with safeguarding the practice to stay out of harm's way with its superior security. The custom solutions that GrowPractice offers are simple yet powerful and future-proof, to say the least. The solutions from GrowPractice are also trusted by several US Federal Government Agencies. So, what are you waiting for?
