Revenue Cycle Management
Healthcare Blog

Asking for money - even when the bill is overdue - is never enjoyable. While it can be unpleasant collecting payment from patients, it is essential for the ongoing success of your practice.

Health care companies have faced some of the biggest shifts in operations, regulations, and general practice in nearly any industry. The changes are coming hard and fast and only the most nimble of organizations have been able to navigate them without much interruption. But, nimble and healthcare are not usually synonymous with each other. Aside of insurance regulation and patient satisfaction, many healthcare organizations are finding themselves struggling with revenue cycle management (RCM).

Are you receiving patient payments in a timely manner – or at all? While revenue cycle management systems streamline the payment process, you may still be struggling to collect amounts due from some of your clients. Post-insurance balances often are owed by patients. Sometimes, legitimate insurance claims are denied because of faulty or incomplete information. Rather than initiate a lengthy collections process with patients, dispute insurance payment denials or (don’t say it) write off bad debt, you can take steps to help close the loop on the patient pay revenue cycle.

It seems pretty straightforward: you provide a service, you bill insurance, insurance pays, a patient pays the balance. In a perfect world, that process would be flawless and you’d never have to consider terms like “revenue cycle management” or “closed-loop revenue cycle,” but as you know, the truth is that when it comes to billing and payments for healthcare services, it’s rarely a pleasant and easy task.

Financial woes were a common resonating theme throughout the healthcare industry in 2014 and all signs are pointing to a 2015 that follows the same trend. Healthcare organizations are being forced to reestablish budgets and rearrange strategies largely in part to the following: