Throughout history, hospitals have maintained fairly sized profit margins. That said, what happens if those profit margins start to go down? While it’s well known that healthcare reform is a necessity for U.S. hospitals, getting there is proving to be a great challenge. Hospitals that have difficulty with their margins have many problems, and this can result in layoffs, difficulty hiring and keeping staff, and delivering lower quality care to patients. It’s not always easy to get out of problems like this, but if you don’t know where to begin, certain factors could be negatively impacting your revenue cycle. Here are some possible reasons your revenue cycle could be struggling.
There’s Trouble Recruiting RCM Staff
You won’t be able to focus on making your revenue cycle better if you don’t have the necessary staff. It can be hard to recruit qualified people to satisfy these roles. You can improve your chances of recruiting them by offering sign-on bonuses and funds for those who continue their training and education. Guaranteeing a competent revenue cycle management (RCM) leadership team that will value its staff members is also a good idea.
Increasing Workload
There is a lot that a revenue cycle management team has to learn, such as all of the complexities that come with payer contracts. All the while, the workload keeps going up, and it can seem practically insurmountable. To remedy this, think about getting contract support, or you could outsource services to a third-party company to alleviate some of the workload. While you pay more money upfront this way, you’ll find that it is a worthwhile investment if you find the right people.
Lack of Innovation
A majority of hospitals will use their innovation budgets on ways to improve the quality of care they provide for their patients. While there is nothing wrong with this, revenue cycle management can get neglected in the technology and innovation departments. Fortunately, technology that can help this department is available. With the right technology, hospitals will be able to significantly improve their RCM department.
Payer Pressures
Payers also have to put a lot of effort into transitioning towards value-based care. As such, they face similar challenges with regard to traversing this new domain of care delivery. They also incorporate new advanced technologies that detect problems more efficiently. All of these factors combined result in contracts that are more complicated, which results in more denials. This can become burdensome for revenue cycle management teams.
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