How To Improve Your Revenue Cycle Management Process

Your practice’s revenue cycle management process can be daunting. Medical billing requirements change frequently, and many practices face denied claims or delayed payments. Here is how your practice can use ambulatory practice management and EHR systems to improve its revenue cycle management (RCM) process.

Improve Your Revenue Cycle Management Process with Ambulatory EHR Systems

Your ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) system can help you improve your revenue cycle management process. Your revenue depends on accurate visit coding and documentation. User-friendly ambulatory EHR systems help providers enter complete and accurate coding and documentation during office visits. Ambulatory EHR systems can prompt providers to include common codes, provide required documentation, or check referrals and prescriptions for coverage. These prompts can save your practice and patients time by ensuring complete, accurate billing for covered services.

EHR systems like NextGen also have integrated practice management systems. With an integrated system like NextGen EHR and PM, you can handle your clinical and administrative workflows all in one place. An integrated PM system can pull coding and documentation from your EHR and package it into claims for billing. You can also track accounts receivable and explore denied claims to identify patterns.

Redesign Workflows to Improve Revenue Cycle Management Processes

Your practice’s check-in and office visit workflows can affect your revenue cycle. If your practice struggles to collect cost-sharing copays or deductibles or faces a high claims-denial rate, workflow redesign may help. Workflow redesign is the process of examining the way your practice accomplishes tasks and redesigning your approach to better achieve your goals. For example, if your practice struggles with denied claims due to insurance errors, redesigning your check-in processes could help. Paper check-in forms can lead to data entry errors or missed opportunities to update patient information. Redesigning your check-in workflow to let patients check themselves in on kiosks or tablets can reduce data entry issues and ensure patients are prompted to double-check their information before each visit.

Redesigning office visit workflows can also help improve your revenue cycle processes. The coding and documentation providers generate during office visits are the basis for medical billing. Your medical billing staff can not submit claims without complete and accurate information. Your office visit workflows should include time for providers to code and document diagnoses and procedures, preferably during the visit. This workflow prevents after-visit work for providers and helps get medical billing specialists the data they need to process claims.

If your practice struggles with claims denials or late filing, you may also need to redesign your medical billing workflows. Medical billing processes should be automated wherever possible. Automating processes within your medical billing workflow will save your staff time and let them focus on complex tasks like working denied claims. For example, with the NextGen Background Business Processor, your EHR and PM system can automatically package and submit claims to your clearinghouse overnight, saving processing time.

Improve Your Revenue Cycle Management Process With Outsourcing or Co-Sourcing

For some practices, outsourcing or co-sourcing medical billing are the best options for improving revenue cycle management processes. Small practices, in particular, may not have sufficient claims volume to support an efficient medical billing department. Larger practices may struggle with attrition, rapid growth, or needing expertise in multiple areas. If your practice struggles with revenue cycle management, outsourcing or co-sourcing may be the answer.

With outsourcing, your practice would hire a revenue cycle management company to handle your medical billing, posting, and payment. Outsourcing generally yields a higher ratio of payments to claims, netting you more revenue even after paying outsourcing fees. Plus, outsourcing frees your practice from having to stay on top of all medical billing changes. With outsourcing, you can focus on patient care.

But outsourcing means giving up control over your revenue cycle. If your practice wants to maintain control but needs extra help, co-sourcing might be a good option. With co-sourcing, your practice partners with a revenue cycle management company to jointly manage your revenue cycle processes. Under co-sourcing, you can have medical billing specialists from a revenue cycle management company on-site, working alongside your staff.

If temporary problems like absences or major projects are getting in the way of managing your revenue cycle, you can also hire temporary medical billing support. For example, TempBill offers temporary, trained medical billing specialists who can fill in when you need them. Services like TempBill ensure you have qualified, trained staff to keep your revenue cycle on track no matter what happens.

How TempDev Can Help With Revenue Cycle Management

TempDev’s revenue cycle management consultants and developers are experts in NextGen’s ambulatory practice management & EHR systems. If your practice struggles with denied claims, credit balances, too high of days in A/R, bad debt, or other revenue cycle issues, TempDev can help. TempDev’s systems analysts can automate common billing processes using the NextGen Background Business Processor. Trainers and consultants can also help streamline your workflows to support your revenue cycle.

TempDev also offers outsourcing, co-sourcing, and temporary medical billing support through TempBill. Get trained medical billing specialists working on-site for special projects or covering absences. Or fully outsource your revenue cycle management to TempBill to let your staff focus on your core mission — improving your patients’ health.

Schedule a consultation with us by calling 888.TEMP.DEV or contact us here to get help improving your revenue cycle management process.