When Q4 rolls around, it’s time to take a hard look your practice’s performance. The financial goal of any practice is to be profitable, and end-of-year metrics are an indicator of this. It’s a good time to assess areas of success and determine where there is room for improvement. Here are five tips that will help you finish the year with less aging A/R and positive cash flow.
1. All eyes on financials
Keeping a close eye on financial performance can prepare your practice to finish the year on a high note. Assessing key KPIs like denials, days in A/R and operating margins is crucial. Insight gained can show trends and help place a spotlight on denials that need to be reworked, securing healthy profits as the year closes out.
2. Work toward efficient workflows
Without proper workflows, your practice could be wasting valuable time and money. The end of the year is the right time to implement the most efficient processes to start the new year off on the right foot. Ensuring collections are optimized is also an important step. Streamline your patient collection process to amplify payments with tools like Patient Billing solutions from Health iPASS, which can help manage the patient payment journey, from intake to final statements.
3. Increase automation
Automation plays a critical role in revenue optimization, and also patient satisfaction. When the new year rolls around, one’s health is often a top priority. And with benefits like annual check-ups restarting at the beginning of the year, many patients schedule their exams and appointments. Make it easier with the self-scheduling feature from Health iPASS so patients can schedule appointments at their convenience. At the time of the appointment, Express Check-in allows for a 100% mobile check-in experience.
4. Make patient payments a priority
In an effort to reduce costs in the past 12 months, 27% of survey respondents have delayed a doctor’s visit, with 19% delaying a medical procedure. With money on the mind, HiP Cost Estimator can help ease financial stress by sharing accurate financial estimates. When patients are aware of their obligations, they are more likely to pay. And since it’s easier to collect at the time of service, easy payment collection methods are a must. HiP Advanced eBilling allows patients to pay their way via text or email, amplifying revenue collection. Trying to collect as much as possible with these patient-centric methods before the year ends can help your bottom line end on a high note.
5. Explore outside resources
With staffing shortages affected practices of all sizes recently, resources have been top of mind for many (and it doesn’t show signs of slowing, as a new survey shows that up to 47 percent of U.S. healthcare workers plan to leave their positions in the next few years). If your practice is not fully staffed, it’s harder to operate at full speed. Outsourcing may be the answer. Bringing on a third-party resource that can assist with everything from billing to customer service can be a lifesaver if your practice is struggling to make ends meet because of limited employees.
To implement these best practices, visit healthipass.com and learn how its solutions can help gain important revenue by year end.
