The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) defines revenue cycle as "All administrative and clinical functions that contribute to the capture, management, and collection of patient service revenue." The revenue cycle comprises of the entire life of a patient right from preregistration to payment. An organized revenue cycle management for optometry medical billing ensures hassle-free administration.
Patient access is the most significant component of the healthcare revenue cycle. Revenue can be gained or lost in patient access even before care is delivered. Putting emphasis on front-end administrative and financial operations takes care of this problem.
Preregistration - The First Stage of a Revenue Cycle
Preregistration is the first patient encounter where efficiency and accuracy impacts the practice’s revenue. Collecting demographic and insurance information prior to registration is called preregistration.
Preregistration marks the first stage of revenue cycle for optometry medical billing. Using preregistration to clear patients financially before they are scheduled for treatment protects payer reimbursements, creates opportunities to collect payments and improves patient satisfaction. This results in faster revenue realization and accelerated cash flow.
Some tasks which need to be carried out at this stage are:
Benefits of Preregistration
Accurate, complete and timely registration helps in smooth functioning of front, mid and back offices. This enables your clinical staff to treat patients without encountering delays. Preregistration gives way to seamless reimbursements which is crucial to the economic growth of both, large and small practices. It helps to gather accurate and timely collection of information. As the treatment of a patient advances, the ability to collect information as well as cash greatly decreases, which lowers the revenue generation process. As a healthcare service provider, it's highly imperative that you have an efficient revenue cycle management (RCM).
Omissions to Avoid in Preregistration
Incomplete or inaccurate insurance information is the most common mistake which results in denials from payers. The patient's name could be spelled incorrectly or there could be a possibility of a mismatch in the patient's date of birth or gender. Preregistration helps in accurate billing of the insurance and decreases the number of denied claims which improves the financial position of the clinic.
Incomplete or inaccurate insurance information is the most common mistake which results in denials from payers. The patient's name could be spelled incorrectly or there could be a possibility of a mismatch in the patient's date of birth or gender. Preregistration helps in accurate billing of the insurance and decreases the number of denied claims which improves the financial position of the clinic.
