The COVID-19 infections caused worldwide by the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in many after-effects. It has stirred in the revenue of many medical practices, both small and large, with the numerous patients visiting their facility forcing them to reassess their revenue cycle. The sudden system of social distancing and online consultations over the years have come to a halt and opened doors for more of your patients to walk into health care facilities with appointments along with the related procedures and tests in person, which stood cancelled during the pandemic.
If you pay attention to the flow of revenue, you can observe a rapid increase and consistency in the revenue flow. Hence it is right to carefully consider a rather useful and excellent revenue cycle management setup to make the most out of it. A seamless revenue cycle management depicts the health of the healthcare organization, and it holds the key to the organization's success. It is important to ensure that the revenue cycle system you use propels you and keeps your organization at the top. Hence it is paramount to carefully observe the latest trends in healthcare revenue cycle management to have a healthy and consistent flow of revenue.
The five most significant RCM trends:
We shall discuss below the five most significant RCM trends that will amplify the organization's financial health.
1) More Focus on a Patient-centric approach by medical practices –Focusing on more of a patient-centric approach can assure your medical practice of augmented revenue flow, particularly enhancing your business to a better level. A sincere discovery by Healthcare IT Today has revealed that digital delivery systems are being adopted to provide the best medical care and simultaneously enhance their practices. It is so simple and relaxed for the medical practice to offer medical care for a patient by choosing automation.
By choosing cutting-edge technology for connecting with patients via social media channels, you can be assured that the physician's offices would find it so much easier. The provider-patient engagement becomes much more effortless, and more focus on the patients is made possible through the digitization of workflow processes. Booking appointments, payment processing and handling complex medical bills become effortless.
2) Moving towards Value-based care –In recent years, value-based care has been another fast-emerging trend that has begun to gain traction. The main thing to be noted by using this model is that the payment to providers is purely based on the quality of medical care rendered other than the total number of medical services provided. Preventive care and population health management have been highly emphasized by this shift, thereby making the RCM adapt to the new paradigm.
3) Easier Payments for the Patients –The loyal patients who come over and again to visit your healthcare for their continued medical support are the potential customers for the business. For a comfortable digitalized banking transaction, these customers find it much easier to make online payments and receive digital information assistance. Hence providing them with beneficial payment plans is a nice gesture of encouragement for their loyalty to your physicians, nurses and the practice.
Many patients had avoided healthcare services owing to the severe economic strain caused by COVID-19 when many had lost their jobs. So carefully considering such situations, it is best to determine the financial abilities of the patients who might find it difficult to pay at once. Instead, it is advisable to offer them plans which help them get reimbursed and make their payments on time.
4) Vital Role of Data Analytics in healthcare revenue cycle management –Recently, the vital role of Data Analytics in the RCM of a healthcare organization is quite evident. By thoroughly analyzing data, identifying areas requiring improvements becomes effortless for medical billing professionals. For instance, data analytics allows you to easily identify the claims denied and the reasons for the denial. Other than this, it also is useful in tracking the latest trends and gives us a clear picture of potential issues that could arise in the future.
Such information greatly favours revenue cycle management in healthcare as it helps to enhance the process of claims submission, which reduces the rate of denials and improves the flow of revenue.
5) Utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning –Cutting-edge technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are the prominently emerging trends. Together they are making heads turn in the healthcare industries. The complexity of payer rules increases each day, making AI and ML a blessing in disguise for enhancing revenue generation for the healthcare industries.
Automating payment posting and receiving prompt automated updates on the payment status helps you seamlessly manage the denials. And a payer portal also ensures that the payer can automate their end. Your medical practice can effortlessly access fleeting data from anywhere with the help of a smartphone, a laptop, or a tablet, as the vital data gets stored and is analyzed directly from cloud computing systems.
In a nutshell
Medical practices need to make the most of these advanced technologies and software to maintain their place and remain successful in the healthcare industry. Installation of modern RCM software in their healthcare facilities quickens patient payments. If you know the recent trends of revenue cycle management in healthcare, you will agree about using advanced software to thrive in this industry.
Outsourcing to revenue cycle management services would be a good and prudent strategy, relieving the practices of complex tasks and assigning them to be efficiently handled by experts from the revenue cycle management companies. They are professionally trained and have years of experience to manoeuvre and amplify the revenue flow of your organization and help you remain successful.