Healthcare is getting squeezed from every direction. The discussion around the cost of healthcare has exploded and everyone is looking at ways to lower the cost of healthcare. Unfortunately, for a hospital or healthcare organization, lower cost healthcare means getting paid less for the same things. We’re going to need a major shift in our thinking to be able to handle this shift in cost.
While we figure out these major changes, one thing I see happening across all of healthcare is managing an organization’s revenue cycle. NextGen recently put out this whitepaper titled 7 tips to go from “Getting By” to “Thriving” where they talk about a number of ways you can improve your revenue cycle management. Here’s a look at the 7 tips they offer:
1. Self-pay Collections
2. Measuring Performance
3. Claims Scrubbing
4. Track and Prevent Denials
5. Create and Enforce Write-off Policy
6. Remind Patients of Appointments
7. Maximize Electronic Remittance Advice
You can download the full whitepaper for free if you want to see a much deeper dive into all 7 of these tips.
What I’ve found as I’ve worked with hundreds of healthcare organizations is that most of these things aren’t rocket science. In fact, deep down these organizations know how to manage their revenue cycle. However, many of them aren’t doing it. Sometimes it’s a lack of resources available. In other cases, the organization just needs a reminder.
Unfortunately, revenue cycle management isn’t always the most fun thing you can do in an organization. It’s not a really sexy job that you can go home and tell your friends about. However, from a financial perspective it’s one of the best investments a healthcare organization can make.