Revenue cycle management is every healthcare practice’s best friend and quite possibly every practitioner’s worst nightmare- unless they’re secret accounting fanatics!
This process of managing the incoming revenue stream as a practitioner from start to finish can not only be time-consuming but also very stressful!
However, hiring a virtual assistant specifically trained in the process of revenue management can make your life a whole lot easier!
Why modern healthcare demands virtual medical assistants
The ever-growing healthcare industry in the US demands the external help of VMAs to deal with certain administrative challenges, issues in medical billing, and staffing shortages.
The talent gap in medicine
Staffing shortage is a serious issue faced by many practices and hospitals, especially in roles related to billing, medical coding, and RCM.
As healthcare systems struggle to fill these roles, extra strain is put on the existing staff which inevitably affects their overall patient care quality and revenue generation
Operational inefficiencies
Most clinical practitioners are overwhelmed with administrative tasks like billing, coding, claims management, and patient data entry.
Add to that the hassle of dealing with insurance claim rejections and constantly calling up patients to collect payments, and it’s clear why all of this negatively impacts their ability to treat patients.
This is also financially strenuous for a practice as a 2018 study published in Health Affairs reported that about 34% of total healthcare spending in the U.S. goes to healthcare administration which drains healthcare workers and strains patient care.
Revenue cycle roadblocks
The revenue cycle management process includes everything from patient registration to the verification of insurance status, billing, coding, and follow-up on claims. Mistakes in any of these steps may delay payment reimbursement and affect cash flow.
With overworked healthcare workers or untrained staff trying to manage all this, billing and coding errors are common. According to an analysis conducted in 2021 by Change Healthcare, 85.9% of denials occur due to such errors and can be prevented if this issue is resolved.
Luckily, all of these issues can be easily tackled with the help of a virtual medical assistant to help ease the administrative load.
How VMAs improve healthcare’s revenue cycle management
Hiring a virtual medical assistant can help increase your healthcare practice’s revenue, optimize your RCM cycle, and help you save on costs!
Streamline the RCM process
Claims processing and submission
Virtual assistants ensure accuracy in the submission of claims to insurance companies thus reducing the risk of denials and delays.
Medical billing and coding
VMAs trained in RCM can efficiently help in accurate medical coding for healthcare services and procedures which reduces the risk of error as reported by a survey conducted in 2022 by Black Book Research.
According to this survey, healthcare organizations using VMAs witnessed a 22% reduction in billing and coding errors. Expertise from the VMAs on correct coding practices meant fewer rejected claims and faster reimbursements, which positively impacted the practice’s performance.
Insurance verification and denial management
After appointments have been booked, these assistants verify the patients’ insurance before submitting any claims.
In case of claim denials, VMAs help in recovering lost revenue by working on denied claims, identifying reasons for the denial, resubmitting those claims, and then following up on the appeals.
An analysis by R1 RCM found that healthcare practices that have hired virtual medical assistants were able to cut denials by 15% over a year and greatly improve their financial status.
Keep your patients healthy and happy
Not only will VMAs work tirelessly to keep your practice running smoothly, but they’ll also play an important role in ensuring patient satisfaction.
Simply put, they can help out by handling patients’ billing inquiries, providing them with suitable payment options, and following up on unpaid bills.
Once insurance claims have been approved, they can also help in ensuring payments are accurately applied to patients’ accounts.
Financial reports are incoming!
Apart from just handling the insurance side of things, VAs can also help you with strategic planning and decision-making by providing you with updated records reflecting the organization’s financial status.
Legal check
It is a VAs job to keep up with the changing laws and policies in healthcare and make sure that a practice also keeps itself updated to avoid any possibilities of errors or penalties regarding billing.
They help in ensuring that all billing and coding are per regulations. This support of compliance ensures correct coding and also minimizes the probability of audits and fines.
Save, save, and then save some more!
One of the biggest advantages of hiring VMAs to take care of your revenue management needs is that hiring external help allows you to massively save on costs, employee benefits and office space.
Outsourcing work to a VMA tends to be cheaper than keeping an in-house receptionist. In fact, according to a Forbes report, healthcare providers save around 20-30% on overhead by hiring virtual assistants.
What are you waiting for? Hire a VMA now!
In order to stand out in this very competitive industry, your practice needs to be as efficient and error-free as possible, while making sure you’re still generating great profits.
Sounds like the perfect deal right? Get in touch with us and let us show you how we can integrate a VMA into your team today!