Role of Patient Engagement in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

The Role of Patient Engagement in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

It is essential for a practice to optimize its healthcare revenue cycle management process to derive maximum reimbursements with the lowest possible processing costs. However, when it comes to maximizing financial efficiency, patient engagement plays a surprisingly huge role. This means that the services healthcare practitioners provide to their patients are crucial for their revenue stream.

Unfortunately, not many providers know about this underlying fact. That’s when they try their best to improve the revenue management systems while investing little (or completely ignoring) in improving patient relations. In this blog, we will help you understand the importance of patient engagement and how it improves your practice’s healthcare revenue cycle management.

What is the Healthcare Revenue Cycle?

The first and foremost concept you need to understand is the healthcare revenue cycle. If you are not familiar with this term, it involves different healthcare processes like patient pre-registration, registration, documentation, verification, billing, coding, payment request, and collection. The revenue cycle also caters to denial management in case patient billing goes wrong.
Each of the processes has a direct impact on a practice’s healthcare revenue cycle. If you make them smooth and efficient, it has a positive impact on healthcare RCM, and if there are errors and delays, there will be delays in reimbursements or even denials.
Role of Patient Engagement in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

What is Patient Engagement?

Patient engagement, as the name suggests, is the process of involving patients in their own healthcare diagnosis and treatment process. The process starts with initialing crystal clear communication with the patient and telling them about all the steps involved in their diagnosis, treatment, and payments. This directly contributes to increasing the confidence of the patient in the provider, which in return, helps the provider receive timely reimbursements for the services rendered.

And here’s another thing to add on, as a provider you should know about the transition of payment source shifting from the payer to the patient directly. Since most of the revenue will now be coming directly from the patient, it’s important to educate and engage them for effective reimbursements.

Mentioned below are some of the most effective ways to improve your practice’s healthcare revenue cycle management through active patient engagement:

Streamlining Patient Scheduling

The process of effective revenue cycle management starts from how effectively you take in the patients from the start of their treatment journey. This includes putting their name in the medical/healthcare records, verifying their insurance plan, or if they are willing to pay themselves, talking about the process and the financial structure behind it. The most effective way to conduct this process is to accurately and precisely collect patient onboarding data like their name, address, contact number, etc.
For this process, you can actively use advanced and AI-powered EHRs, such as Maximus EHR, for fast processing and automation. The intuitive interface makes it easy for you to put in records and organize them so that they are easily accessible in time of need. EHR can also be used to eliminate any possible manual error with a chance of better data accuracy during the input process.
Mentioned below are some of the most effective ways to improve your practice’s healthcare revenue cycle management through active patient engagement:
Role of Patient Engagement in Improving Revenue Cycle Management
Role of Patient Engagement in Improving Revenue Cycle Management

Optimizing Insurance Verification

Confirming the insurance plan of your onboarding patient also carries a significant impact on healthcare revenue cycle management. Most of the time, especially during shifts in insurance of patient payment plans or policies, patients fail to deliver the most updated information which negatively impacts the financial cycle of your practice.
For example, if your patient shares their old and outdated insurance plan as the source for your reimbursement, and then you send the claim for reimbursement, it will automatically be denied. In case of outdated information, claim delays occur which critically halts your progress as a practitioner. This also wastes a lot of your time and attention since this problem will occupy your mind for a long time, and you won’t be able to dedicate proper time and attention to your next patients.

Simplifying Claims Processing

Most healthcare practices across the U.S. make claims processing a long, complex, and tedious process which results in complications, delays, and even denials. Since long processes take much more time and attention, a single mistake in that can sabotage your claim. The best way to treat your claims processing is to keep the overall system simple, in check, and easy to understand and optimize from any point.
For such processing, most healthcare workers use software and apps to optimize their systems. This also delegates this tasks and transfers the stress from their shoulders to the organized systems and automations of the machines. You can use the latest coding apps, like MaxCoder, to delegate and systemize your coding processes. Coding, as we all know, takes up a lot of time and energy for practitioners, administration, etc. It’s best to bring apps to handle such tasks for you so that you can focus on things that need your most importance.

Systemizing Denial Management:

Denial management is an integral part of the healthcare revenue cycle of a practice. This is primarily because inevitably, you get to face claim denials for the claims you send to the payers. At this point,t if you have a solid, organized, and robust denial management system, you can save a ton of revenues from leaking and disappearing out in thin air. For a starting step, you can first identify the common claim denial reasons and work on fixing them. Moreover, you can systemize your denial management by applying active tracking to the claims to track and analyze the common weak points of the system that cause denials.
Most of the time, claim denials stem from patient scheduling, from appointments to patient registration, which is the main reason why patient engagement plays an important part at this stage. If you can convey the whole process to the patient, they will actively participate in providing proper information and data, which will ultimately lead to fewer claim denials. You will be amazed how, taking such a small step, will affect your revenue stream.

Outsourcing to Professionals

Although not directly related to patient engagement, outsourcing your healthcare revenue cycle management and other administrative tasks to medical experts like MaxRemind will help you control your revenue leaks from the start. Since MaxRemind will handle every process like patient onboarding, verification, data processing, and reimbursement collection, you can rest assured all the work will be done in a truly professional way. With almost 20 years of vast experience in the healthcare industry, MaxRemind will fix your practice’s revenue leaks and will help you maximize your reimbursements from your existing number of patients.

So if you’re looking to practice your healthcare duties stress-free, we recommend you hire MaxRemind for your day-to-day healthcare administrative tasks. Delegate the tough part to us so you can solely focus on what you do best, i.e. patient care.

FAQs
What is the Healthcare Revenue Cycle?

The healthcare revenue cycle is a critical process involving patient registration, insurance verification, treatment, coding, billing, and collections.

Why is Patient Engagement Important for Revenue Cycle Management?

Patient engagement improves patient satisfaction, reduces administrative burdens, and ensures timely and accurate payments, ultimately boosting healthcare revenue.

How Can I Improve Patient Engagement?

Clear communication, personalized patient experiences, and efficient billing and collection processes are key to enhancing patient engagement.

How Can I Make Patient Billing More Efficient?

Streamlining the billing process, providing clear and concise billing statements, and offering flexible payment plans can improve patient billing efficiency.

What is the Role of Technology in Revenue Cycle Management?

Technology, such as MaxRemind used in MaxCoder and Maximus EHR, can automate tasks, improve accuracy, and enhance communication, leading to a more efficient revenue cycle.