How can automating eligibility verifications boost a sluggish revenue cycle in 2019?
No matter how good we are at our jobs, or how hard-working and efficient we are, we are humans and humans make mistakes. Although, sometimes these mistakes come with too high of a risk when you are running a healthcare facility and need to keep the lights on. The good news is that these mistakes are preventable through proper automation and can significantly reduce the number of claims that are being denied. Utilizing technology to make administrative and revenue cycle management tasks subject to less error is the key. Fewer errors mean shorter A/R days, which always leads to a happier staff and higher resident satisfaction.
How can you make technology work for your facility and impact your revenue cycle? Since Eligibility Verification is the foundation of proper billing and subject to the most human error if done manually, this is an excellent place to start ensuring the cleanest claims possible.
Have staff verify coverage and eligibility before admission
A systematic and robust revenue cycle is the foundation of your facility, so it’s important to prioritize it. Many different scenarios can impede prior eligibility checks, such as unforeseen emergencies or a busy day in the facility that won't allow time to run a verification. By cutting down on manual and time-consuming tasks, you can ensure that all eligibility checks will be done at the proper time. With a simplified system in place to verify patient eligibility, it greatly reduces scenarios that can have significant consequences only to be discovered down the road.
Enable batch inquires
By enabling batch eligibility checks, you can verify eligibility for more patients in a shorter amount of time. Streamlining this task will also allow healthcare providers to determine the eligibility for multiple patients at one time or the status with various payers. Having the ability to track these insurance changes in batches will not only help avoid errors but will also enable you to give your team a significant amount of time back. This process will free up some of the workloads and will result in faster claims creation and submission. This will also lower employee stress, which always results in patient satisfaction.
Focus on working faster while producing more accurate results.
Make sure your eligibility portal is working in real-time and can provide quick eligibility answers in a matter of seconds. This will also aid in keeping patient data easier to manage when all the information you need is right at your fingertips. Having all the patient data, you need in a matter of seconds will aim at closing the gap between information going from the front office to the back office seamlessly.
The best thing you can do to boost your revenue cycle is to avoid as many rejected claims as possible. This is where eligibility verification automation tools can have a tremendous impact and before you know it, your average A/R days will be much shorter. With Approved Admissions Eligibility Verification Platform in place, your staff will be free of the many headache-inducing billing errors that all healthcare facilities are faced with. This will inevitably lead to faster payments, better patient experience, and an overall better bottom line for your facility.