Traits to look for in your revenue cycle partner
Whether you are a physician practice, hospital, or medical billing company, outsourcing your revenue cycle is a strategy you can use to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Most companies struggle with the emotional outsourcing decision that changes the status quo. When you eventually make the outsourcing decision, you must tread with caution. You rely on your partner to deliver the financial and clinical outcomes you value the most.
Why should you go through the process of kissing many frogs till you find the proverbial prince? We bring you a cheat sheet for choosing the right partner. Some key traits to look for include:
Industry expertise and experience: Look for a supplier with a deep understanding of the healthcare industry and a proven track record of success in revenue cycle management. Look for someone who has experience in your specific specialty. Not all outsourced RCM partners are equal.
Technology and innovation: The supplier should have access to the latest technology and be able to implement innovative solutions to optimize your revenue cycle. Look at the workflow automation, analytics, and robotic process automation capabilities your supplier can bring to your operation.
Scalability and flexibility: Look for a supplier that can adapt to changes in your organization's needs and can scale its services to meet increased demand. You must try and understand their track record of delivering SLAs, including quality and turnaround time. If you are a revenue cycle services provider, you may want to look at their ability to hire on demand. For physician practices, you should look at your monthly close processes.
Compliance with regulations: It is important to ensure that the supplier is knowledgeable about and compliant with all relevant regulatory requirements, such as HIPAA, to minimize any risk of non-compliance. Especially in medical coding processes, look at the supplier's audit processes and the ability to protect you from upcoding for services.
Communication and transparency: The supplier should be able to provide clear and regular updates on the progress of your revenue cycle and be responsive to any questions or concerns. Check if your outsourcing supplier has real-time reporting capabilities using workflow automation tools. Real-time reporting ensures that you control your inventory, and the supplier's team ensures they have cleared up the work sent to them.
Cost-effectiveness: Consider the overall cost of the outsourcing arrangement, including any setup or recurring fees, to ensure that the supplier provides value for money. Benchmarking cost proposals by seeking a third party's help will help you confirm that you are getting competitive rates.
Keep a clear focus on the goals you want to achieve with your revenue cycle services partner. When you choose your revenue cycle services partner, look for their track record and capabilities in terms of people, process, technology, and infrastructure. If you look at some of the top RCM services partners, you will find the following distinguishing characteristics:
Industry expertise: The best revenue cycle services partners have a deep understanding of the healthcare industry and a proven track record of success in revenue cycle management. Specifically, look for their RCM expertise in your area of work.
Technology and innovation: They invest in the latest technology and constantly explore new ways to optimize revenue cycle processes and reduce costs.
Compliance: These partners stay up-to-date with all relevant regulations and ensure that their services are fully compliant with these regulations.
Customer service: They prioritize excellent customer service and communication, responding quickly to any questions or concerns and providing regular updates on the progress of their services.
Scalability and flexibility: They can adapt to changes in the needs of their clients and can scale their services to meet increased demand.
Cost-effectiveness: These partners provide high-quality services at a competitive price, maximizing value for money for their clients.
Data security and privacy: They have robust security measures to protect client data and handle sensitive information securely.
Performance metrics and reporting: They provide clear and transparent reporting on their performance, allowing clients to measure the success of their outsourcing arrangement.
Medical Billing Wholesalers – Differentiating through technology
At MBW, our technology, processes, and values help us create a competitive edge for our customers.
Advanced technology: MBW has invested in RPA and workflow technologies to automate many billing tasks, manage inventory, and reduces errors.
Experienced personnel: Our team has certified coders and experienced billers who deeply understand the healthcare industry, medical specialties, and billing processes. Our specialty-specific best practices help us ensure that we can collect more, avoid denials, and accelerate cash flow.
Customized reporting: For many of our clients, we have built adapters and APIs to provide them with customized reporting and data analysis. This helps them make more informed decisions.
Compliance and security: Our operations are certified under the ISO9001 quality management system and ISO27001 Information security management system. This ensures we have strict protocols to comply with all relevant regulations and robust data security measures to protect client information.
Scalability: We have invested in creating a brand as an employer. We can scale our services by training and deploying talented resources. The on-demand scalability helps us meet our client's changing needs, making us a flexible and reliable outsourcing partner.
Competitive pricing: We provide flexible pricing arrangements, including FTE, transaction, and contingency-based pricing, which helps us align our delivery efforts with client expectations.
Client support: We have a dedicated client support team available through emails, phones, and chat to quickly respond to your queries and provide regular updates on the inventory status sent to us.
In conclusion, MBW combines people, processes, technology, and infrastructure to create a flexible and scalable delivery model to support your needs. Our client relationship processes and focus on continuous improvement make us the partner of choice for our clients.
