Did you know that physician compensation only increased for 37% of all independent physicians in 2017?  That’s a sobering thought that compensations have remained relatively flat for many physician specialties year over year.  And couple that with a decrease in overall practice cash flow and constantly changing coding rules, and you’ve got unhappy physicians and a financially precarious practice.

Clearly, the need to automate manual practices in the back office within a physician clinic is the key to improving cash flow and physician compensation.  And the industry trend appears to be that more and more practices are outsourcing their revenue cycle management (RCM) for just this reason.

Here are some of a practice’s revenue cycle challenges that can be resolved by using an outsourcing team to assist your practice:

Rework how your backend efforts are operating

Many practices that are outsourcing their revenue cycle challenges are able to implement backend efforts to process and reconcile their bills earlier and faster.  This obviously improves a practice’s ability to collect AND speed up reimbursements from payers.

Shore up inefficient billing practices

It is estimated that outsourced medical companies help physician practices experience fewer rejected claims and less time to receive payments from a payer within the first two months of outsourcing.  This fact clearly shows that money spent outsourcing can be recouped by a physician practice in a short period of time.

Take on newer technologies and processes unfamiliar to your practice

Many physician practices are unprepared and inexperienced at implementing technology-driven care.  An outsourced medical billing, coding and RCM company already has experience at what today’s latest tools can accomplish and can implement these best practices for you by either doing partial or full managed business office services.

Becker’s ASC reports that RCM outsourcing and extended business office services are expected to report a 42 percent overall growth rate from the fourth quarter of this year through the first quarter of 2019.  This means that outsourcing has become the norm as opposed to something only a select group of physician practices gamble on.

Here at MEREM Healthcare Solutions, we’d love the opportunity to show you how much we can improve your practice’s RCM so that your specialty practice is thriving financially.  Improving cash flow and physician compensation requires working hand-in-hand with an outsourced healthcare solution.

Is your medical facility leaving money on the table? Contact the professionals at MEREM Health today to learn how we can ensure you are getting paid what you deserve every time!  

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What could I gain from doing an audit? GOALS

The results from any audit are measured against industry benchmarks. If you are struggling to meet or keep up with these standards, a billing and coding audit should be performed in order to help you understand the key areas where your clinical operations are weak and help you to identify priorities and set goals toward making improvements that impact your revenue cycle.

At MEREM Healthcare Solutions, we call these standards, Industry Benchmarks, and it is our mission that all of our clients meet and exceed industry benchmarks.

What is a REVENUE CYCLE AUDIT?

A practice operation review tool used over a period of time to help you improve your current revenue process. We believe that routine, internal audits of your billing and coding processes are necessary. Every time an audit cycle is completed, there should be further improvement in patient care.

WHAT ARE INDICATORS THAT IT’S TIME FOR A REVENUE CYCLE AUDIT?

Is your practice losing money? – An audit will help you identify revenue loss and set goals focused on profit potential.

How quickly are your claims being followed up upon initial denial? – Efforts to reduce claim denials should begin with a revenue cycle audit to help you identify the source of denial trends.

Are you confident in your in-house/outsourced coding accuracy? – Coding services are the life-blood of your practice. That is how the services you provide are transformed into billable revenue.

A complete Revenue Cycle Audit includes:

• Coding accuracy audit
• Billing and accounts receivable audit
• Industry Benchmark Comparison for your individual practice

Conducting a revenue cycle audit in-house may take away from your daily responsibilities, and be a daunting task. Considering an outsourced solution for conducting your audit will help you stay on track and focused on continually improving your processes.

Whether you currently handle your billing and coding in-house or outsource to another company, MEREM Healthcare Solutions can provide you with an unbiased industry comparison and revenue cycle audit report to assist physicians and practice managers with improving their practice performance. Our audit results are always kept confidential for our client’s internal use only.

MEREM Healthcare Solutions is a Birmingham, AL-based company that has been providing exceptional medical billing and coding services to physician practices and ambulatory surgical centers since 2008.
We pride ourselves on not just maintaining, but exceeding, the level of accountability, communication, and customer service that is valued in traditional, on-site billing departments.
Please check out our other blog posts, or contact us to learn more.

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