Parts one and two of our blog post covered some key ways you can better optimize your revenue cycle, rather than just managing it. Using technology to your advantage and making some small tweaks to your workflows can help you improve your bottom line immediately. Here are two additional things to keep in mind.
Best Practice: Find a System that Meets Your Exact Clinical Needs
There are a lot of software programs available today. Some were built with large hospital systems in mind. Others were built with sprawling multi-location clinical practices or physician groups with hundreds of practicing providers in mind. While the software program might be great, it probably won’t meet the needs (and fit in the budget) of a smaller independent clinic with just one or a few providers.
Managing RCM: if you’re just trying to manage your revenue cycle, you can choose a system that offers a bunch of bells and whistles outside the scope of your practice’s needs. You’ll spend a lot more money and probably won’t use a significant part of the system, though.
Optimizing RCM: to optimize your revenue cycle, start with a system that is built with a smaller clinic in mind. These systems provide all the core features you need at an affordable price for an independent clinic, and systems like AdvancedMD can be built piece by piece until you have the perfect system for your practice.
Best Practice: Regular Reviews
An often-cited business adage from Peter Drucker says, “what gets measured, gets improved.” Nowhere is that truer than in your revenue cycle. If you have no idea what’s happening at every step along the RCM process and you are only looking at the bottom line, you won’t be able to identify places where you can optimize, improve efficiency, streamline workflows, or remove steps that aren’t working.
Managing RCM: if you look at your reports that only show high-level metrics like your total revenue compared with collections, you might be frustrated that it’s low. It’s frustrating because you’re missing some key indicators in the details that could quickly improve collections with some small tweaks.
Optimizing RCM: using an RCM software program that provides a detailed analysis based on best practices for revenue cycle management—using templates that are already created so you don’t have to figure out what data you should be looking at—can help you find the small details that dramatically improve your total collections.
Start Optimizing Today
AdvancedMD offers a simple and effective RCM system to help you not only manage your revenue cycle but optimize it. Find out more by scheduling a demo today.
