Is your Revenue Cycle Staff Burning Out?
Strategies for Health Systems to mitigate staffing risks
A revenue cycle CFO faces multiple challenges - Declining reimbursements, the need to find money to make investments in technology and automation, and the massive shortage of qualified revenue cycle labor. Navigating this complex maze can be an arduous task, and a strategic partner can help. This article discusses the issues caused by a labor shortage and how outsourcing can provide the answers.
Revenue Cycle Staff Burnouts
The pandemic has been the key reason for labor shortage in the revenue cycle functions. Yes, CFOs and operations managers are trying to respond with various strategies, including increasing wages, greater use of remote and outsourced workers, workflow and robotic process automation, and attracting talent through sign-on-bonuses. Yet the labor shortage is not going to be over soon.
Health systems laid off many RCM staff when patient volumes decreased and are having trouble re-hiring. At the same time, jobs in retail and non-traditional healthcare, such as home care, continue to attract RCM staff due to better pay.
The massive backlog of accounts receivable and claims not filed is another crisis that threatens the very survival of health systems. One can argue that health systems have brought this challenge onto themselves. Still, the unpredictable nature of the pandemic is the culprit behind ad-hoc staff layoffs, which has created the backlog.
The pressure on those RCM staff members who have stayed loyal and are working through these challenges is immense. Operations leaders now realize the importance of investments in tools and automation, something they should have done when the times were better. Staff burnout is an essential issue that health systems must address with better engagement. Augmenting capacity is the need of the hour to reduce the workload on in-house RCM staff.
Physician Burnout
Physician burnout is another issue that health systems are facing now. During the pandemic, large health systems had to continue to provide mission-critical support to patients. Physicians worked around the clock as the pandemic crippled the nation. In the post-pandemic era, patients seeking treatment for elective procedures have multiplied many times. Those who chose not to visit healthcare facilities and postpone elective treatments are now opting to do so, leading to a rise in volumes.
As per some industry studies, over 40% of physicians accept that they are burning out. Among the reasons cited are lack of digital tools, the need to spend time on clinical documentation and coding, trying to find their way through the maze of government regulations, and spending more hours than necessary at healthcare facilities to cope with the rising demand. Human resources and operations leaders at health systems can resolve some of these issues through staff augmentation and investing in the digital transformation of the healthcare entities. But Hospital CFOs are dealing with a chicken and egg situation – a lack of money to invest in digital transformation and the shortage of resources to help them find the money.
Outsourcing revenue cycle services can provide the answer.
Revenue Cycle Outsourcing
Outsourcing RCM processes can help hospitals and healthcare systems by
Enabling physicians to see more patients and focus on providing outstanding care – something they should have focused on in the first place,
Providing an RCM workforce that brings the capacity to process the enormous backlog of claims,
Bringing best practices to help physicians reduce time spent on clinical documentation,
Plugging revenue leakage and improving collections,
Avoiding staff burnout,
Reducing the total costs of RCM processes by bringing in a global workforce at significantly lower costs,
Improving compliance as the team of billing and coding experts brought by the outsourced service provider understands the guidelines of different payers as well as changing federal and local regulations, and
Improving brand and patient experience as physicians spend more time delivering care.
Choosing the Right RCM outsourcing partner
There are many myths prevailing about outsourcing the revenue cycle. Concerns around losing control, finding the right partner, and creating the right structures and frameworks to govern outsourcing engagements contribute to these misconceptions. A strong revenue cycle partner addresses these issues by demonstrating the following traits during the transition and ongoing services delivery:
Sets the right expectations around absorbing your revenue cycle volumes.
Applies technology to manage their workforce and sets productivity benchmarks
Manages the operation by the numbers
Demonstrates excellence in recruiting and training the right people
Implements a governance architecture with daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadence of meetings with different levels in your organizations
Understand your top priorities and strive to lead by example to exceed your expectations.
Sounds Utopian? Not really! Achieving excellence in revenue cycle outsourcing involves applying the right processes and technologies and deploying great people. It’s a team sport.
We welcome you to schedule a no-obligation discussion with our leaders on how Medical Billing Wholesalers can transform your revenue cycle. Feel free to call us at +1 (718) 249 2245 and write to us at info@medicalbillingwholesalers.com
To learn how Medical Billing Wholesalers can help your healthcare organization achieve financial success, visit https://www.medicalbillingwholesalers.com
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