Unless there is a well-established/running workflow, steps in the process can be missed, tasks may be forgotten, and mistakes may increase in quantity. • Helping patients access their records- It’s estimated that 50 percent of providers are still using … Accounting, after all, deals with the management of income and expenses. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. • Does your staff regularly fall behind on claims follow-up? It is easy for all such credits to total in the millions of dollars. To build a new patient acquisition machine, you need a blueprint, training, accountability, and transparency. In fact, the entire revenue cycle process in healthcare includes some basic accounting procedures: collecting patient co-pay, determining patient eligibility, making sure coding is conducted accurately, claims tracking, collecting all payments and following through on denied claims. This happens when the amount collected via payers and/or patients for a service is greater than the amount owed. PROBLEMS ACCOUNTING IS THERE TO PREVENT In fact, the entire revenue cycle process in healthcare includes some basic accounting procedures: collecting patient co-pay, determining patient eligibility, making sure coding is conducted accurately, claims tracking, collecting all payments and following through on denied claims. Although they may be busy doing multiple tasks, staff members can get into trouble can if they underestimate their role in the accounting process. Achieving this, however, starts by having every staff member (including doctors) understand and fully appreciate how important accounting is for a medical practice. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. At the very least, confirm that every member of your staff is intimately familiar with how important properly managed accounting is for the viability and survivability of your entire operation. To learn more about Rhinogram, visit https://rhinogram.com. A common situation that healthcare accountants run into is an accumulation of credits in accounts receivable. Are you concerned that your practice is paying too much for credit card processing fees? Others may want just the facts, and do better with a simple checklist. There is no question, however, that income or “revenue” takes precedence since, without adequate revenue, there is no viable “business.”. Source: Thinkstock —Improper workflow. Revenue Cycle Management in healthcare settings is the function of managing a medical office’s payments received, claims processing and revenue generating in general. This is just as undesirable to hospital managers as it is to the patients themselves. Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. Has your staff, for example, been properly trained in confirming patient eligibility, insurance status, and proper co-pay amounts? Bad accounting practices don’t always lead to insolvency or bankruptcy but, even if all they’re doing is hurting your bottom line slightly, why would you tolerate such an easily fixed fiasco? Readmissions are not only costly to healthcare systems, but speak to a poor overall standard of care. In healthcare, RCM calls for: Managing a medical office’s payments received; Processing and tracking, which can often become complex; Determining patient eligibility for specific services Our Patient Acquisition and Retention Framework™ (PARF) puts you in control of finding and keeping the right patients while growing your practice for long-term health. That’s what we call The Bridge, which is the first step within PARF. For example, roughly 26% of claims promptly and accurately put through are just as promptly rejected. Obviously, this results in substantial losses of revenue for healthcare facilities that allow such inexcusable travesties to go on. If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. Of course, you can stay afloat while at the same time incur some of the problems or deficiencies already mentioned. For example, some patients may want detailed information about every aspect of their health condition. No patient wants to leave the hospital only to return within a few days or weeks. This can happen if: —Your accounting staff hasn’t been properly educated or trained in proper accounting procedures/processes. In fact, the following assumptions can safely be made about the doctors that oversee many medical practices these days: Having said this, it is possible for doctors to have well-run, equipped and staffed facilities that practice good accounting procedures and practices. Does the patient have physical, mental, or emotional impairments that impact the ability to learn? HIP has recently entered into a strategic partnership with Merchant. All these things can result in costly delays in getting the funds you need to pay your facility’s own bills. Income (revenue) is the lifeblood of any business. Cloudflare Ray ID: 5fa167a4ff4632a7 they haven’t been formally trained in the financial aspects of running a facility (which is why many doctors hire office managers and accountants); they are usually too busy practicing medicine to properly supervise their personnel, including their accounting staff; and they often have no reason to suspect that the revenue for the practice can most probably be enhanced simply by reducing or removing the inefficiencies, shortcoming, and waste that can often be found in medical care facilities/offices. Physicians and office managers can’t just assume that everyone is doing their job—instead, regular meetings need to take place so that financial reports are reviewed in order to note accuracy (or the lack thereof) in collections, revenue, and accounts receivable.