Are you thinking that revenue flow is interrupted due to high accounts receivable? Of course, you need to boost A/R productivity for the Success of Revenue Cycle but you aren’t the only healthcare professional to face revenue loss but you can make a difference particularly during the pandemic.
Insurance companies are obliged to pay healthcare professionals for the services provided to patients. Providers are facing multiple denials due to errors in the medical billing process. Pandemic heightened the inefficiencies in Account Receivable processes and productivity due to shutdowns of widespread service lines to shifting staff to work at home and increasing self-pay balances. However, the pandemic also boosts opportunities for improvement in productivity tracking.
Tracking of A/R productivity for success of revenue cycle during pandemic
Today, providers should not be only focused on measuring their A/R success in the total number of accounts worked and total revenue received, but at a more granular level of staff productivity and patient and payer payment behavior.
The next step after getting insights about staff metrics is understanding how to segment accounts effectively, improving adherence to internal procedures, and understanding the best time to call patients and payers can supercharge the potential of A/R portfolios.
How to boost A/R productivity in the WFH model?
Revenue cycle management teams of various healthcare organizations are working remotely to avoid the spread of the virus. Hence understanding and improving productivity will be the key to revenue cycle success in this new hybrid work environment.
Traditional strategies for tracking the productivity of A/R staff are no longer useful in this pandemic due to the large adoption of WFH. Traditionally efficiency was measured by the total number of accounts worked however there are deeper insights which include the volume and types of calls (payer or patient, inbound or outbound), active hours per day, number of claims worked per call, and specific activities performed on each account.
You can use these metrics to identify strengths and weaknesses in both operational workflows and individual staff activities then you can set appropriate, attainable goals based on performance to ensure staff members are working at the best.
Moreover, in order to maximize productivity and collection potential, you must prevent claim denials and unnecessary reimbursement delays. This is done by understanding payer patterns to streamline front-end and back-end revenue cycle processes.
You can Leverage technology to effectively monitor and measure activities taking place inside and outside of the office. These activity tracking can help gauge productivity and ways to improve it. This includes not only staff activities but even activities of payer and patient populations as well.
Role of technology to ensure revenue cycle success
The right technology solutions are the key for tracking, informing, and improving productivity for optimal financial performance. In a remote work model, data-driven technology will be key for optimal performance.
Today, Patient engagement is very important for A/R recovery which is easily done with the help of technology. Team handling revenue cycle management should equipped their staff with the best tools to communicate with patients and improve the chances of payments.
To improve the speed and volume of patient collections you need to offer convenience and ease both for the patient and the account representative.
Finally, we can say that the “WFH” model is a new normal and it is getting adopted widely hence now it is at most important that revenue cycle leaders keep their eye to boost A/R efficiency and productivity for the success of the revenue cycle. If you are looking to boost your revenue, we can help you and we are one of the top preferred physicians’ choice to outsource medical billing and coding.
