StrategyDriven Expert Contributors’ Blog

Running a hospital is more than offering a top-notch quality of care to your patients at all times. Of course, it is the mainstay of operations, but you also need to focus on revenues to keep things on track. Whether you run a small private practice or a large multi-specialty hospital, improving revenue cycle management should be your priority. Essentially, it is about streamlining your payment processes, reducing payment lags, and limiting rejected claims. Covering these fronts increases the efficiency of your hospital and brings more money for it. Although you may have a revenue cycle management process in place, the New Year is the best time to improve it. Here are some measures you can embrace in 2023 to facilitate the system.

Step up appointment scheduling

Stepping up the appointment scheduling process gives you a good start with enhancing the revenue cycle efficiency of your hospital. After all, you must ensure that the right number of patients step in at a point in time. Stretching your schedules can affect the quality of care and increase the burden on providers. Conversely, not getting enough patients in appointment slots translates into a loss of revenue. Improving appointment scheduling by letting patients schedule their own appointments can address the concern. Also, implement a system to send out reminders to minimize no-shows and missed appointments. Consider upgrading your practice management software this New Year to streamline the scheduling function.

Automate verification of patient eligibility

Another measure to get better with hospital revenue cycle management is to automate the verification of patient eligibility for claims. Ensuring that your patients are eligible beforehand enables you to reduce claims rejections down the line. It also eliminates one of the biggest pain points of the billing process. Additionally, automation boosts employee productivity as they can skip all the repetitive tasks and focus on more critical aspects of running the practice. Your hospital staff will be in a better place to provide quality care instead of wasting time on verification and paperwork.

Bring transparency in payment processes

Besides streamlining appointment scheduling and eligibility verification, you must focus on bringing transparency to payment processes this year. Ensuring healthcare cost transparency is a trust factor for patients as they know their financial responsibility before committing to the treatment plan. It also benefits your organization by reducing bad debts down the line. You can go the extra mile by giving patients the option to pay their bills online, as it is convenient and encourages timely payments. The overall objective is to make your payment process simple, transparent, and more accessible.

Modernize claims processing

Modernizing claims processing should be next on your checklist to improve the revenue cycle management for your hospital. You can do it by implementing a software solution to handle claim documentation and calculations instead of relying on the conventional manual process. The switch helps in ensuring the accuracy and completion of claims before submitting them to insurers. It boosts the chances of prompt payment and limits the risk of rejection of claims for your hospital.

Manage claim denials

Denied claims are an integral part of the business, so you cannot sideline them completely, no matter how efficient your process is. But careful planning and attention to detail can help you minimize them. Outsourcing your revenue cycle management to specialists ensures the highest first-pass acceptance rate. Also, follow up on denied claims instead of losing track and not resubmitting them. You can always send such claims for review and resubmission to get a second shot.

Outsource medical billing

Another simple step to enhance hospital revenue cycle management is to clean up your medical billing practices. The best way to do it is by outsourcing the process to an expert as it reduces your workload and prevents errors and inefficiencies in medical billing. A specialist can also help you improve the process efficiency to get you paid faster and increase your revenues in the long run. Moreover, your staff can concentrate their energy on patient care without worrying about long and complex billing processes.

A healthy revenue cycle is key to the success of a hospital as it keeps the money flowing and boosts profits in the long haul. But you cannot take a set-and-forget approach to revenue cycle management because things can easily go out of control if you are complacent about billing, payments, and claims. Follow these easy steps this New Year to keep track of dollars, ensure timely payments, and stay ahead of denied claims in 2023 and beyond.