Healthcare reforms, patient influx and downward pricing pressures from insurance companies have made it difficult to run a profitable clinic. It is important for providers to analyze their practice management system, financial standing, billing, and collections procedures. This will help to determine if their practice is reaching its full revenue potential.
Observation and surveys reveal that there are various factors that affect the profitability of a clinic. Some of them are as follows:
Improper Billing
The profitability of a clinic mainly depends on how well the billing process is handled. The claims need to be submitted on time or practices start losing money right from there. It is found that 25% – 30% of income at a medical practice is lost due to improper billing. Thus, providers are forced to strike a balance between their clinical and administrative tasks. This has caused the physicians to spend more time on documentation instead of seeing patients, and thereby creating room for coding errors.
Outdated Technology
Good clinical and financial outcomes can be ensured with the use of latest technology. If outdated health IT systems are being used, physicians will never be able to optimize the revenue cycle. Use of latest technology like EMR or practice management system is required in the following areas:
- Front office – for reducing patient no-shows, verifying insurance and increasing collection of a patient’s self-pay balance
- Patient visit – documenting details of patient encounter and capturing relevant documentation that can help billers
- Billing functions – timely submission of claims, tracking claims status, automatic posting of payment
Untrained Staff
Lack of experienced and well-trained staff can reduce the profitability of a clinic. For instance, untrained coders and billers are not deft enough to submit error-free claims, which results in revenue loss. In order to strengthen the financial health of a practice, physicians also need to hire trained front-office employees. They enhance the level of patient engagement, acting as direct drivers of revenue at the practice.
Are Administrative and Clinical Tasks Streamlined at your Practice?
In order to have a profitable business, physicians should have the latest technology, an experienced billing staff and a smooth work process. Financial outcome of their practice can be improved by integrating these assets into their workflow. But, with the increase in workload due to the healthcare reforms, they are left with less or almost no time to handle the above-mentioned factors.
Time constraint prevents the providers from monitoring the progress made by the in-house billing department. They are not able to invest in the latest technology or hire, train and retain skilled staff such as coders at an attractive pay package due to monetary constraints.
In order to reduce the costs of running a clinic, increase revenue and optimize cash flow, many physicians have started outsourcing their billing needs to companies like MedicalBillersandCoders.com. Currently, MBC serves 42 specialties across all the states in the US helping providers enhance the profitability of their business.
The team of skilled and certified billers and coders at MBC offers HIPAA-compliant medical billing solutions. Physicians can either take the entire suite of services from MBC or customize the services as per their needs.
