Strengthening RCM Resilience During and Post Covid-19

  • Written by Yash Rajan
  • Monday 5th September 2022
Strengthening RCM Resilience During and Post Covid-19 VLMS Healthcare

Healthcare companies are dealing with stalled cash flow and declining revenues as the pandemic expands. To preserve bed availability, crucial revenue from elective procedures and hospital inpatient stays was postponed indefinitely. Revenue cycles are under additional stress and uncertainty due to the impending dangers of COVID outbreaks and quarantines. The criteria are now in place, and this has accelerated the evolution of medical billing and coding regulations. Revenue cycle managers must upgrade and concentrate their best practices on increasing quality to obtain optimal reimbursements in order to steer the ship steadily even in stormy seas. Providers cannot risk losing out on billable revenues during this crucial time. As you traverse a very disruptive time, VLMS has provided tips to assist guide your RCM process in a more steady path.

1. Create a strong programme for revenue consistency
The financial stability of a healthcare institution depends on revenue integrity. CFOs will need to refocus their attention on revenue integrity teams as the healthcare revenue cycle management enters a perilous phase as a result of the complexity brought on by the pandemic. This is done in order to make sure that their facility is putting in place proper procedures to avoid revenue loss or delays, increase compliance, and, most importantly, make sure that their business is adhering to newly formed codes and developing requirements. To avoid denials at all costs, coding and charge entry personnel will need to be trained on new codes.

Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) employees will play a key role in ensuring that healthcare professionals are adhering to new documentation standards for coding diseases connected to COVID-19, and they should get the necessary training to be successful in their developing job. The best way for healthcare providers to capitalize on the new reimbursement policies being given by payers is to use thorough documentation in advance of an expected slowdown in cash flow.

2. Addressing staffing issues
Finding the appropriate applicants to fill positions has become difficult across all RCM services activities as a result of COVID-19's unanticipated expectations. Healthcare professionals were forced to balance transitions to work from home or furloughs. Issues brought on by a lack of visibility and tracking are made worse by remote activities. The volume of rework has also greatly grown, which puts further strain on the RCM services workers to complete their backlog of tasks that appear to never stop. Not to mention staying current with all of the COVID-19's processes and newly announced diagnostic codes.

Healthcare firms starting their remote working experiences will need to take crucial business procedures into consideration to maintain employee productivity, even while automating workflows is a wonderful approach to expedite the delivery of work and cut expenses.

3. Use virtual care programs as required
As COVID-19 instances are prevalent, more patients are utilizing virtual treatment. As a result of CMS stating that patient visits are equal to in-person visits and reducing regulations for providers that offer virtual treatments across state boundaries, this trend is only expected to increase and might result in continuous income generating. Healthcare professionals must keep an eye on the smooth flow of clinical data obtained through virtual care platforms in order to give medical coding and billing systems as much detail as feasible.

4. Make financial reporting a priority
The pandemic has further increased the significance that revenue cycle procedures play in maintaining the viability of businesses. Revenue cycle processes have always been important for assessing the financial health of healthcare providers. To enable corporate executives to make data-driven decisions, revenue cycle teams' accurate reporting will be crucial. Weekly and daily A/R shifts, bad debt performance, cost-cutting tactics (such as outsourcing or remote labor), A/R stratification and predictions, net income estimates, and other information are all covered in these reports.

VLMS always puts the needs of its clients first and provides them with a 100 percent solution that streamlines their revenue cycle management. Our expert staff is committed to providing a dynamic medical billing and coding solution so that any errors won't have an impact on revenue cycle management.