Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical practices are experiencing a loss in revenue stream as patient traffic has reduced in clinics and hospitals and patients are canceling non-emergency appointments due to the fear of catching the virus at the doctor’s waiting room.

You might be thinking to outsource your revenue cycle management to a third party to improve RCM efficiency and the better financial health of your medical practice.

Costs of Time and Struggle

One of the key reasons that practices want to outsource their medical billing processes is that they want to focus on what they love to do, that is taking care of their patients in the best possible way. By handing over billing tasks to a third party staff members can be free of complex financial tasks and center their attention on satisfying patients.

Cost Owl highlighted that 8 major billing responsibilities need complete attention from staff members and a professional third party can handle these chores more effectively and efficiently, reducing errors and providing your practice with faster payments.

8 Tasks of Billing

  • Insurance verification of patients
  • Keeping a record of patient demographics
  • Identify the charge entry
  • Submission of claims
  • Awaiting payment to post
  • Follow-up when necessary
  • Denial management
  • Finishing financial reporting

Each of the tasks related to the revenue cycle management process takes a lot of time. Staff needs to keep track of unpaid patient bills which takes time and some patients need to be sent reminder emails or notices regarding unpaid bills – Such tasks are taxing and time-consuming and may hinder the growth of your practice.

Pricing Concerns

Maintaining an internal billing team and department turns out to be more expensive as compared to outsourcing billing services to a third-party vendor. When you have your billing team you are not only paying monthly salaries but in addition taking care of their healthcare, taxes, and training. A switch to third-party financial solutions can increase practice revenue by $201,600 on average.

Calculating the costs of outsourcing RCM services

According to the Medical Billing Service Review healthcare providers lose $125 billion annually due to billing claims denied by providers. The loss is incurred because of errors in coding and patients missing payment due dates.

If you are a large medical setup then the third-party vendor will charge a flat fee of $1000 for each office. You should also know that there are administrative fees that cost between $3000 to $6,000 which depends upon the size of your practice and the number of patients you see and treat every year. The good thing is that when you outsource your billing tasks your revenue increases.

If you are a small setup then you will pay hourly fees. The charges are based on the time spent by the RCM vendor or company to collect your bills. You won’t be paying monthly charges for the billing services and it turns out less expensive than hiring a financial staff member for it.

Final Takeaway

Using robust financial software systems like Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Software and outsourcing your billing tasks can help practices enhance the quality of healthcare and reduce any financial errors to leave your practice with a higher flow of revenue as financial specialists are handling each step of RCM processes with dedication.