6 Ways to Increase Productivity in Your Accounts Receivable Department

Accounts receivable (A/R) is a prime determinant of how healthy your?revenue cycle management is. Accounts receivable refers to the money your?facility expects to receive from customers for the services they received. They represent an asset, since they indicate money flowing into your hospital, and have a major effect on whether your practice is profitable or not.

What can you do in terms of A/R management to improve medical revenue cycle management? Here are 6 ways you can enhance the productivity and effectiveness of your accounts receivable.

1. Identify Non-Value Added Tasks and Automate Where Possible

Just because nobody likes doing certain tasks doesn't mean they can be ignored. Identify tasks nobody likes to do, like fixing data entry errors, creating invoices, or updating spreadsheets. Once you have identified these dreaded tasks,?look for ways they can be automated. For example, if your A/R processes require you to enter output from one software system into another software system, it's worth learning whether an interface is available to automate this process.

2. Ensure Your Software Is Fully Capable of Accounts Receivable Management

Perhaps your practice is using an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or electronic health records (EHRs), or maybe you use a general accounting system for accounts receivable management. The problem is, when your software isn't expressly designed for healthcare A/R management,?it can still cause a lot of manual work?and time looking for information, fixing errors, or updating spreadsheets. Don't expect general practice management or accounting suites to be sufficient for medical revenue cycle management.

3. Divide and Conquer

Developing?consistent processes?can help keep average days in A/R down. Every practice may have a different way of doing things. Maybe your team spends one day a week creating, printing, and mailing invoices and another day contacting patients who have not paid within the time you allot. Or perhaps you divide these tasks up among team members, with one person focusing on delays from third party payers, another concentrating on creation and sending of invoices, and another doing phone follow-up with delinquent accounts.

4. Make Payment Discussions Part of the Intake Process

Many insurers provide software you can use to quickly assess whether a patient will require prior authorization for certain services. If you use this, you can discuss estimates of how much the patient will pay out of pocket when he or she registers, or even before the appointment. If your practice offers financing options for expensive procedures, discuss these as part of the intake process to help prevent problems once invoices go out. People don't like surprises with medical bills, and broaching the subject early can prevent them.

5. Offer Multiple, Convenient Payment Options

Patients appreciate the convenience of multiple payment options.

If you only accept payments by mail or in person, you could be needlessly prolonging days accounts spend in A/R. Offering an online payment portal so patients can pay by credit card or e-check will prompt many people to go ahead and pay. Sure, buying a stamp isn't an enormous imposition, but your patients will appreciate the option of paying their bills without a trip to the post office or to your facility. The fees you pay your credit card processor should be more than made up for by an increase in timely payments.

6. Make Clean Claims a Perpetual Priority

While your A/R people aren't responsible for submitting insurance claims, making clean claims a top priority can have an appreciable effect on days accounts spend in accounts receivable. The fewer claims that are rejected or denied, the quicker third parties pay, and the more quickly you can bill patients for their portion of the costs.??

Conclusion

Revenue cycle management is an intricate process with many interlocking parts. When something goes wrong with one part of the revenue cycle, all other phases are affected too. Problems tend to come home to roost in accounts receivable, but there are ways to prevent and cope with them effectively.

At Zinserv Healthcare, we assist healthcare providers with medical revenue cycle management, whether they need help reducing days in A/R, temporary staffing to make up for staffing shortfalls, or help with technology transitions. Our professionals all have at least a decade of revenue cycle management experience, so they're ready to get to work immediately. We invite you to call us at 877-266-6691.