One thing will always be true: Every healthcare organization’s revenue cycle is complex, yet serves as an essential piece to help keep the doors open to serve their communities. In navigating today’s healthcare landscape, it has become necessary, in many cases, to look at outsourcing to supplement organizations’ resource pools—and revenue cycle is no exception. There are many nuances, options and misconceptions around outsourcing and the use of new technology in this space. I want to take a deeper dive into recognizing the value in outsourcing, what it really “should be” and opportunities organizations may be missing by not embracing it.

Revenue cycle outsourcing is, at its core, an extension—not a replacement—of the organizations’ workforce. The additional support is not meant to upend any personnel, rather to enhance and support the organizations’ workforce. In addition, outsourcing can be used for short- or long-term projects and used to meet key milestones your organization has set to achieve.

For example, maybe you need your billing staff dedicated to getting claims out the door; however, by giving follow-up, appeals and denials to a dedicated outsource group that is well-versed in this space, your internal staff can reduce your Discharge Not Final Billed (DNFB) and your extended workforce will help reduce the A/R days with the use of technology, automation, skills and focus that you did not have previously. In short, while this supplements and complements your workforce, your revenue cycle management will always be a priority, and taken to the next level. With today’s outsourcing options and advanced skillsets, the ability for teams to work within the source system is not an issue, all while maintaining a single source of truth.

There are many nuances, options and misconceptions around outsourcing and the use of new technology in this space.

There are also certain risks an organization may unwittingly face if revenue cycle outsourcing is not considered. Let’s explore two exceedingly common risks centering on financial challenges and staff burnout:

The bottom line

Of course, revenue cycle activities directly affect your bottom line. Often, organizations find that they have been wasting resources, or even leaving money on the table, when they begin outsourcing their revenue cycle management. Since this outsourcing enables dedicated experts to focus on the complexities of collecting, organizations have found immense financial benefit through expanding their workforces in this way. Unclaimed reimbursements, missing charge capture, coding opportunities, denied claims and so many more revenue opportunities can remain missed. Not only is it about the outsourcing, but again, these technologies and flexible contracting arrangements are based on performance with little or no upfront costs. For example, technology has become so advanced for self-pay that the options regarding texts, payment plans and financing options mean that the likelihood of collecting is greater if your vendor partner team has the tools and resources to make it happen.

Staffing shortages and burnout

Staffing is a big issue in healthcare—across many disciplines, but especially for revenue cycle management. Without revenue cycle outsourcing, the stressful workloads your staff members shoulder can cause burnout, attrition and, in the end, gaps in your staff roster. Outsourcing your revenue cycle activities enables experts to use their specialized skillsets to tackle your financial challenges and solve operational problems. In doing so, your team can now focus on other tasks or challenges that might arise in other areas of your business.

Revenue cycle problems can become exceedingly complicated, so adding a team of experts with a sole focus on these critical tasks with the appropriate data analysis tools will mitigate your risk of losing high-performing team members while ensuring your revenue cycle is well managed and intact.

The summit of revenue cycle excellence

I’d like to highlight the work we do at Altera to enable everyday advancement for the organizations we serve. With our Managed Services team, we provide experts that offer diverse experiences and viewpoints to help solve problems, consult on projects, stay abreast of upcoming industry trends and perform technical- and operational-related tasks with our clients. We invest in our relationship on and offshore that drive outcomes that lead to a valued partnership and broker trust. These efforts propel not only our clients’ revenue but their ability to sustain their growth mindsets to achieve new heights and serve their communities and employees, which is what we’re all about.