Top 5 Challenges with Revenue Cycle Management

In order to handle all the financial pressures associated with healthcare regulations, it has become imperative for providers to ensure strong revenue cycle management. Since the revenue cycle process is dynamic and keeps evolving, issues related to staffing, billing and IT also keep arising. There are several day to day challenges that healthcare professionals have to deal with.

Here are top five challenges that providers can face with their revenue cycle management system:

1. The first and most common challenge is related to billing and collection errors. Providers need to have an effective billing process in place or else they will experience delays in getting paid. They need to have a streamlined method to collect payment from customers too.
2. Second biggest challenge in having a strong revenue cycle is the lack of trained resources. If you don’t have staff members who possess sufficient industry knowledge in revenue cycle functions, then it will impact your bottom line to a great extent. Untrained staff will hamper day-to-day operations which will affect the overall performance of the practice.
3. Many practices fail to monitor the claims process due to which their revenue cycle gets affected. Close monitoring is essential at every stage or else coding or billing issues will be left unidentified. This will result in huge revenue loss.
4. Challenges related to technology also impact the revenue cycle. Healthcare professionals are required to use IT effectively if they want to run their practice smoothly. They should keep a track of claims throughout the revenue cycle with the right use of IT. So if you don’t have your IT and billing infrastructure in place, then it will pose problems for you.
5. Getting trained staff is a huge challenge that almost every practice has to deal with. Even if you manage to find experienced personnel, you need to keep training them. This is because coding and billing rules keep changing. Training requires time and money but also helps save a lot of money in the long run.

So if you want to save thousands of dollars and get paid on time, then make sure your revenue cycle management system is in place. There are several reputed medical billing companies out there that specialize in revenue cycle management. You can hire a billing partner for your practices to not only get paid on time but also to streamline your practice functions.