In the healthcare industry, the main focus is always on providing excellent patient care, but unfortunately, in order to provide such care, concentrating on generating revenue is a must. To complicate matters further, a delicate balance exists between the two, and without proper planning your practice may find itself with too few patients, thereby decreasing revenue. This vicious cycle can eventually spin out of control, leading to the closure of your practice altogether. Thankfully, there are a number of simple steps that you can implement to not only continue offering superior patient care, but also to help your practice generate more revenue and healthier revenue cycle management.
Collect No-Show Fees
One of the core aspects of running a medical practice is scheduling. Patients make appointments and you block out the appropriate amount of time to see the patient. It’s as simple as that. However, when patients fail to show up for scheduled appointments, your practice not only loses money, disrupting cash flow, but such an incident can also increase wait times for other patients who have shown up on time for their appointments. As a result, you may lose on-time patients as they grow frustrated with having to wait longer to see your medical staff. In order to remedy the situation, both from a patient care and from a revenue standpoint, consider charging no-show fees to patients who fail to adhere to your scheduling agreements.
Collecting payment doesn’t have to become a tug-of-war if you require co-pays up front.
Practice Proper Coding
Coding your patients’ medical billing documents properly is one of the biggest means of generating revenue. Failing to properly code such documents may mean that your practice is missing out on hundreds or thousands of dollars per year per patient, all because of a slight clerical error. In order to ensure that your patients are being billed properly, keep your administrative staff updated on the latest in coding standards, and provide as much detail as possible in patient charts so that your administrative staff knows what to code and bill for.
Assess Fees to Patients Who Fail to Pay Co-Pays Up Front
Another issue that medical practices face when dealing with revenue concerns is patients who receive service and then are unable or unwilling to pay their insurance co-pays upon checkout. In order to combat this and drive more revenue for your practice, let patients know that if they do not pay their co-pay fees prior to being seen that an additional fee will be added on at the checkout procedure. This will help to ensure that your practice receives prompt payment of co-pays, and if the patient declines and accepts a fee, you may choose to levy the additional charge at the end of the visit.
Utilize a Practice Management System
You can also tie all of these strategies together through the use of practice management software. A software system that features the ability to monitor and collect no-show fees, assist in coding duties, and assess fees for failure to pay co-pays up front can not only generate more revenue for your practice, but it can allow you to offer more efficient and effective patient care. To learn more about healthcare software solutions, contact.
Andrew Rusnak is an author who writes on topics that include medical practice management and business development.
