The number one priority of management, executive, and ownership level business is learning when and how to delegate responsibility. When it comes to revenue cycle management, the evolving healthcare industry almost requires that medical professionals take full account of their administrative capacity. Although keeping this aspect of business in the house may seem like a great idea on the surface, it can cost an office a great deal of time, resources, and reputation over the long run.
Advantages of outsourcing your revenue cycle management service
Increasing The Bottom Line:
The primary reasoning behind outsourcing anything with your revenue should be to increase your revenue. A dedicated, experienced team working specifically to optimize your documentation, appeals, and denial management should eventually reduce the amount of money and time that you have to spend on administration. Because the work will be accomplished through a professional team that analyzes and improves every iteration of its deployment, your process ends up costing less and taking less time from your day-to-day operations.
Focusing The Office On Its Core Competencies:
It is highly likely that the majority of people in your office were trained primarily in the administration of your billing cycle. You hired people for their ability to take care of patients. Every time one of your in-house staff has to deal with items on your revenue cycle management agenda, they have to take attention away from what they do best. Your entire practice suffers when this happens. Your employees will not be able to accomplish the management task as well as a true professional. They will also have less time to perform their primary duties optimally. Outsourcing your revenue cycle management ensures that your in-house staff stays focused on the core competencies of your office – the entire reason that you went into the medical profession, to begin with.
More Timely Submissions:
Many of the offices that do not outsource revenue cycle management have to deal with the very direct monetary loss that comes with delayed and rejected reimbursements. New regulations in the industry of medicine put more pressure than ever on medical offices to submit perfect billings to insurance companies. Companies have the ability to make huge problems for medical offices that miss the nuances. Many of these problems may not even be warranted, but most offices do not have the leeway to fight delays and rejections. Insurance companies know this.
Future Proofing The Business:
The current state of medical industry administration will not be the future of medical industry administration. Do you think that your office has the manpower and the time to keep up with constantly changing regulations and technical updates? You may not even have the ability to train your staff fully in a regulatory package. A dedicated third-party team, however, will have the time, the experience and the strategy for these instances. In effect, you will future-proof your business against any changes that may come down the pike, regardless of what they may be.
Your Reputation:
Your in-house staff obviously wants to produce good work for you. However, if they do not have the training or the time to fully master revenue cycle management, your business reputation suffers. As tempting as it can be to leave the responsibility to your staff because of the lower cost, realize that you are losing money over the long term. If patients and partners do not believe in your office as a business entity, then you will lose business. This is the bottom line. There is no such thing as personal feelings when it comes to cash flow and revenue, so do not try to put them in the way. Although you may feel a bit empty at the beginning, your revenue and your in-house staff will thank you in the long run!