Addressing Medical Practices’ Post-Pandemic RCM Challenges

Physician practices experienced significant patient care and operational challenges in 2020 across the nation. From scrambling to comply with PPE requirements and shifting to virtual care to simply trying to stay afloat, the focus for many was sheer survival.

In recent years, strategies that promote collection of co-pays have become an industry priority. Amid rapid growth of high-deductible health plans, patient responsible balances have become a much larger share of physician revenue, yet this area of reimbursement all too often becomes a sizeable share of a practice’s bad debt.

Addressing front-end registration and collection pitfalls are important steps to improving revenue cycle processes. On the back end, practices need a solid strategy for overseeing aging accounts receivable (AR) and managing denials in a timely fashion to eliminate bottlenecks and ensure optimal cash flow.