If your medical practice struggles with billing and collections, you’re not alone. These areas are complex and present a significant challenge for many groups. Take the wrong approach, and there’s a good chance you’re falling victim to at least some revenue leakage – more than any practice can afford.
Working with a revenue cycle management (RCM) services company is the best way to stop revenue leakage and maximize reimbursement from every payer. Unsure if you’re leaving reimbursements on the table? abeo, a leading RCM services company supporting clients in healthcare, suggests four questions you must ask to avoid revenue leakage in your practice.
In some ways, your reimbursement potential is limited by the payers you form contracts with. This can be challenging for practices that rely heavily on government payers. These contracts typically provide lower reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and cannot be altered to seek more profitable terms.
However, it’s the quality of the contracts, not the payers themselves, that ultimately determines the reimbursement your practice receives. This could be as simple as requesting subsidies to make compensation more competitive for organizations that primarily serve low-reimbursement, government-funded clients. Doing so may be difficult for a practice of physicians, who are primarily and rightfully focused on the quality of patient care. This is where an RCM services partner can step in and make certain that all contracts are negotiated with terms that ensure profitability for your practice.
Every practice must understand its strengths and weaknesses. Doing so makes it possible to identify areas for improvement and find partners who understand your needs and offer applicable solutions. For many practices, revenue cycle management in medical billing and collections proves to be where additional assistance is needed. Without an effective billing process in place, your group is at risk for:
If you’re falling behind in these areas, there’s a good chance your practice has fallen victim to revenue loss. Seeking an experienced medical billing company’s services allows your team to stay focused on medicine while leaving these matters in the hands of experts. The result? Your patients receive the highest standard of care, and your practice collects all available revenue.
Successful practices have one thing in common: they rely on data to inform business decisions and guide strategic planning. If you’re in the dark about accounts receivable, it’s impossible to understand the revenue leakage your practice may be experiencing. Every practice should be able to answer the following questions:
Your team likely lacks the time or resources to gather and analyze data successfully. However, in the hands of a revenue cycle management partner, you’ll receive customized insights that turn raw data into actionable information backed by extensive experience.
If your practice has struggled with revenue cycle optimization, achieving it may seem out of reach. Yet, with the right partner, this is the most easily resolved challenge you face. Once you’ve done so, it’s possible to address more complex problems, such as payer mix and utilization.
Ideally, your group should seek a mix of government and private payers to maximize reimbursements and ensure your contracts yield profitable results. Still, it may not be possible to achieve this balance. An RCM services company may address this issue by negotiating more favorable contracts that share the burden of low reimbursement payers with hospitals and health systems. Similarly, your partner can help improve utilization efficiency, eliminate waste, and optimize available staff and resources to avoid revenue leakage.
Don’t let revenue leakage diminish the financial health of your practice. Contact abeo to learn more about our revenue cycle management services. We’re committed to leveraging advanced RCM services, innovation, and have more than 50 years of experience to help every client maximize reimbursements and eliminate profit loss.
abeo Management Corporation (abeo) serves as a leading source of revenue cycle management and practice management with a specialization in anesthesia. The company leverages its people, processes, and software to serve independent practices, surgery centers, hospitals and healthcare systems with a scope of services that include billing, coding, transcription, practice management, and business consulting.