Pursue Optimal Efficiency

Use six key workflow strategies to improve your bottom line.

Successful practices provide quality patient care while achieving good revenue cycle performance. They seek to be more efficent. From the front end of the office to the back, each employee finds ways to be more productive and ensure that the revenue stream is maintained.

In such practices, revenue cycle management is not haphazard, but involves specific workflow strategies that streamline processes, enhance productivity, and bolster patient satisfaction. Let's take a closer look at six specific workflow strategies to help your practice improve overall efficiency and, ultimately, strengthen your bottom line.

Strategy No 1:

Communicate Proactively with Patients

Share information proactively with patients about what they can expect from your practice - both clinically and financially - to help avoid misunderstandings, ehance patient satisfaction, and encourage repeat business. And, have an employee make courtesy calls prior to patients' visits to explain both payment policies and expectations and to help patients become aware of their out-of-pocket costs.

This call also provides the opportunity to address any potential payment problems early on, and avoid reimbursement issues on the back end. Informed patients improve morale because back-end staff spend less time chasing down payments and talking to patients who are dissatisfied because they did not fully understand their obligations to the practice.

Strategy No 2:
Verify Eligibility Upfront

To support proactive communication, revenue cycle staff must know a patient's insurance coverage, co-pay, and other financial details. Verifying this information prior to a patient's arrival at the practice allows staff to determine upfront whether a procedure is allowable through insurance; what the fee schedule is for the procedure; and the approxmate patient responsibility. This helps avoid unwelcome surprises, minimizing practice risk and preventing physicians from providing services for which they will not be paid.

Eligibility verification can be done manually or automatically. In a manual process, assigned staff members contact insurance providers via phone or website to verify patient benefits and eligibility. An automted process, which involves verification software, requires fewer staff resources and can lead to quicker eligibility verification. Either way, verification should be done prior to the patient visit.