5 Ways to Improve Your Revenue Cycle Management

As a sturdy hull is required to captain a ship, revenue is essential to keeping the wind in your business’ sails. Unfortunately, many practices struggle to effectively allocate time and energy to reel their hard-earned cash.

Easily unnoticed under the surface of your financials, what starts out as a small crack in an income stream or two can quickly snowball into an insurmountable breach. Before long, not only is your revenue being washed away with the tide, but you’re sinking too!

To stay above water, healthcare professionals often hire expensive medical billers instead of plugging the holes in their billing and claims processes. Making the problem worse, they inevitably end up with weak revenue and higher costs.

That’s where efficient revenue cycle management comes in. If you’re having trouble maximizing your income or cash flows, here are five ways your practice can improve your billing cycle and sail off into the sunset.

What is Revenue Cycle Management?

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) is the front-to-end process by which healthcare organizations conduct the financial side of running their operations. That includes capturing charges, filing claims, posting payments, correcting denials, sending statements, and all the other tasks that make running your business possible.

Complicated and varied, this medical billing ecosystem poses many challenges. From documentation and coding to dealing with third-party insurers, the very nature of the endeavor creates multiple pressure points and bottlenecks that can quickly threaten profitability.

Read More: How Virtual Staffing is Changing the Face of Healthcare

The fact that most medical professionals are not prepared to deal with medical billing and revenue hassles only exacerbates the problem. Doctors learn how to manage illness and injury in medical school, but many don’t encounter the ins and outs of revenue cycle management until it’s too late.

However, if you know what to look for or partner with revenue cycle management services like DrCatalyst, turning your billing process around can be done in as little as five steps.

What Are the Top 5 Ways to Improve Revenue Cycle Management?

Speed Up Collections

Effective revenue management relies on efficient collections. No matter your industry, delinquent client payments will wreak havoc on your finances. That's why it's crucial to implement a strategy to speed up collections.

By doing so, you can keep your cash flow steady and ensure your bottom line remains healthy. From staying organized to streamlining statement generation, developing tactics to improve collections is key. Remember, prompt collections not only benefit your company's finances but also improve the patient experience.

Eliminate Errors

Many practices struggle with revenue cycle management due to coding errors. To ensure that your organization runs smoothly and remains profitable in the long run, catching simple mistakes like duplicate entries, typos, and incorrect entries prevents major headaches down the line.

If your billing team struggles to get it right the first time, investing in remote medical billers could be the answer. At DrCatalyst, we specialize in delivering error-free billing and freeing practices from this all-too-common issue.

Address Claim Rejections & Denials

Even when you’re committed to streamlining your revenue cycle, it can be daunting when claim rejections and denials become routine. Not only does the time-consuming and resource-intensive task of resolving denied claims lead to revenue loss, but it also causes frustration for patients and staff alike.

To handle these challenges, healthcare providers must take proactive measures to reduce their claim rejection and denial rates. With the help of innovative technology, comprehensive training,  or remote experts, providers can eliminate these financial barriers and maintain better outcomes.

Read More: The Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing for Healthcare Providers

Consistent Follow-Up & Review

One of the most frustrating billing issues is dealing with unpaid claims and overdue payments, which create stress and financial strain. However, implementing a consistent follow-up process might make all the difference.

By staying on top of these issues and establishing a simple plan for handling them, you can avoid unnecessary headaches and ensure your business remains profitable—especially if you have a remote account manager dedicated to the process. Whether it's sending out reminder emails, making phone calls to clients, or dealing with insurers head-on, taking a proactive approach to unpaid claims and overdue payments will keep your income up and stress levels down.

Analytics & Reports

Using analytics can be a game-changer in identifying areas of improvement and developing strategies for better financial outcomes. By leveraging data insights and financial tools, companies can gain deeper insights into past behavior, current progress, and future plans.

Armed with this critical information, you’ll make more informed and confident decisions to help drive revenue growth, cut costs, and improve overall business performance. Whether you're a small independent practice or a large medical group, embracing analytics can be a powerful tool to help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve your goals.



The Best Revenue Cycle Management Solution? Remote Medical Billers

Has getting your revenue cycle in order always been an issue? Are you tired of dealing with expensive and inefficient medical billers that cost too much money and solve too few issues? Now, there’s a better way to handle your finances: DrCatalyst.

DrCatalyst’s remote RCM team can put all of your problems behind you. We handle your revenue cycle management processes for you for a fraction of the cost of in-house billers, including claims scrubbing, submissions, and appeals.

If you’re ready to take your revenue cycle management to the next level, contact our team today for a free 15-minute consultation and try DrCatalyst risk-free.