How to Overcome 3 Top Revenue Cycle Challenges in 2022

Financial pressures are reaching a tipping point in today’s physician practices. Across my 30-plus year career as the owner of a growing orthopedic practice, I’ve watched a relatively simple medical billing process devolve into an entanglement of regulations, complicated insurance requirements, and now patients – a non-regulated entity – are quickly becoming the largest payer. Add to that the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and shrinking reimbursements, and it’s no wonder so many practices are struggling to stay afloat.

Similar to treating medical issues, physician practices must have the ability to diagnose issues in the revenue cycle quickly, implement change and measure in real-time the effectiveness of the changes made. For example, the days of submitting an insurance claim and getting paid within 30 days are gone. If billing issues are not identified immediately and caught before claims go out the door, denials begin to mount up, and often, practices find that it’s too late to recover reimbursement. Many times, changes to people, process and technology are required to ensure a healthy revenue cycle.