How Are Your Daily RCM Activities Impacting Your Bottom Line?

February 22, 2019

In the dynamically changing world of healthcare, providers are continuously challenged with maximizing their revenues in order to provide better patient care and remain solvent. As industry regulations continue to evolve and vary from year to year, providers must continue to ask themselves two very important questions:

1. How is your practice managing billings and collections activities?
2. What effect is that process having on your bottom line?

If the answer to either question or both is “I don’t know,” then chances are that practice is not maximizing all potential revenues. A 2018 study by Dimensional Insight and HIMSS Analytics* added some interesting insights to these questions. With respect to the current process(es) being used to manage billings and collections, the findings included:

• Only 13% of respondents stated that their Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) processes are completely automated
• 37% indicated that their RCM processes are less than 25% automated
• 71% use their EMR as their primary means of managing RCM activities
• 69% use more than 1 solution to manage RCM activities
• 76% said that claim denials were the biggest RCM challenge they face
• 98% of the respondents reported that data collection from varying sources was either a “moderate” or “big” problem for them
• 96% stated that the ways data is collected was either a “moderate” or “big” problem

So what do all of these findings mean for healthcare providers and what can be done about them? Some general conclusions that can be drawn are that providers are struggling to stay current with technology and industry regulations, are complicating processes by using more than one solution to manage their activities, and that collecting and providing accurate patient data is a great challenge. Undoubtedly, these types of inefficiencies are leading to lost revenues and negatively impacting the bottom line of providers throughout the industry.

Don’t allow your practice and patients to get caught up in the confusion! GBS has an all-in-one RCM solution that will help to decrease insurance denials, increase patient collections, and simplify office processes. We’d be glad to discuss how our proven business model can benefit your practice, and how we’ve already helped other organizations improve their bottom lines by improving their billings and collections. Contact GBS today and get started!

*Dimensional Insight/HIMSS RCM Survey: “Understanding Health Systems’ Revenue Cycle Management and Challenges.” www.dimins.com; accessed June 2018.