One of the most important key factors for improved practice growth is accounts receivable days. The AR days are a measure of the average time it takes to pay a claim. One of the most important key factors for improved practice growth is accounts receivable days. The AR days are a measure of the average time it takes to pay a claim based on the average daily charge volume. The type of care and medical specialties influence this level of measurement. However, the suggested standard is less than 40 days.One healthcare organization that invested in Revenue Cycle Management automation revealed that it greatly aided in the organization of claims and the efficiency of their AR staff.
Accounts receivable tracking is a difficult task, but reducing the number of AR days automatically improves practice productivity to a large extent.
During this critical period, the healthcare industries are looking for the best ways to recover from the economic difficulties caused by pandemic signature. Working to improve account receivable efficiency through RCM automation is thus a key opportunity for everyone.
Factors Influencing AR Days
Knowing the common causes of increased Account Receivables days will allow you to address them quickly for improved efficiency. This includes the following:
- Delays in filing claims
- Erroneous coding
- Errors in data entry
- Ineffective eligibility determination
- Claim rejections have increased.
- Increased denials and a slow appeals process
- Delays in credentialing
- Inadequate posting procedure
The Importance of Revenue Cycle Management Automation in AR Management
The revenue cycle management process is a comprehensive one that includes claim management and AR follow-up. As a result, healthcare organizations have decided to invest in Revenue Cycle Management automation in order to reduce manual accounts receivable processes and improve AR efficiency. And this type of decision assisted some organizations in reducing AR days over 60 by 38% in three months.
Automation technology also aids in the creation of advanced, easy-to-access work lists for employees based on factors such as cash collection methods, denial code, and date.
The automation process reduced the time practice staff spent switching between healths’s IT systems to manage each account, ultimately increasing Account Receivable efficiency.
Using RPA to Manage the Revenue Cycle
Because there are so many processes that must be handled precisely, RPA provides incredible benefits for RCM. As a result, human errors can have a significant impact on your healthcare organization’s medical billing and claims cycle. RPA eliminates all errors caused by mistyped information and basic human errors.
Robotic Process Automation also allows these processes to move more quickly. Revenue Cycle Management automation can complete tasks that would take a worker several hours to complete in a matter of minutes. Some of the RCM tasks that can be easily automated with the Electronic medical records software are as follows:
- Segmentation of Patient Billing Accounts
- Pre-authorization
- Insurance Verification
- Claims Submission
RPA allows you to automate redundant processes and pull data from multiple data sources. The program checks data and moves information from one source to the next, eliminating the need for manual input.
With a focus on work process and analytics as central advancements, revenue cycle management measures are particularly amenable to advancement through RPA. For example, in Accounts Receivable (A/R), RPA’s role is to drive efficiencies in the amount of effort required to collect from payers and patients, while also smoothing out upstream cycles like eligibility verification and approval.
Automated bots maintain your AR accountability in order to eliminate payment challenges.
- Make a synchronized database of all collections’ data, including net and gross collection ratios.
- Keep track of your clean claim rates and payer rejections.
- Automatically logs AR reports and consolidates AR data import/export.
- Bots examine payer trends and provide information on top payers’ unpaid claim activity.
- Analyzes lost revenue automatically and generates audit reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
- Allows you to recoup your RPa investment by recovering thousands of dollars.
- It is common knowledge that accounts receivable outnumber accounts payable.
Improving EHR Usability necessitates concentrating on four key areas
- Leaders must implement tools that allow clinicians to focus on serving patients in order to improve patient care. Including technologies that work behind the scenes to capture and interpret billing and coding details from clinical documentation can reduce burnout while improving patient safety and satisfaction.
- When clinicians can easily access the information, they need when they need it, their productivity and satisfaction improve. Too often, physicians are overwhelmed with clinical data and waste valuable time sifting through it to find relevant details.
- Clinicians require workflows that enable the automatic identification and interpretation of medical information from previous encounters, lab reports, inpatient records, and other sources.
- EHRs require technology that operate in the background to validate billing, compliance, coding, and quality measurement in order to minimize data entry and guarantee the right information is recorded for proper reimbursement.
What are the advantages of RPA in terms of revenue cycle management?
There are numerous advantages to utilizing RPA to manage your practice’s healthcare revenue cycle. These advantages enable healthcare providers to reclaim time and resources lost to time-consuming tasks and concentrate their efforts on more important topics such as patient care, efficiency, and doctor-patient communications. Here are a few examples of how automation technology can help healthcare providers manage workflows in order to reduce human error and streamline business processes.
Enhance Patient Communications- Revenue Cycle
Patient communication is just as important as interdepartmental and staff communication. RPA facilitates patient support through revenue cycle activities. For example, after speaking with a patient on the phone to answer questions or discuss service costs, you can automatically send a recap email of the conversation to them.
Expedite Staff Communications
The Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface improves RCM communications by allowing it to pull in layers of data from multiple sources. Data is collected in a centralised location that is always on, always accessible, and always up to date in real time. There will be no more back and forth between departments or duplication of efforts.
Current HIPAA Compliance
RPA technology for healthcare revenue cycle management can provide 100% accurate compliance-based records to meet all HIPAA compliance requirements. With automation technology, you can be audit-ready at any time.
Workforce
As a digital workforce, RPA bots can run their processes either attended or unattended around the clock. For example, the bots could handle claim intake, evaluation, and handling of incoming claims data from providers to extract required data, identify exceptions, and process invoices through to payment.
Virtual Assistants for Robots
Having someone streamline your inputs and outputs can be very beneficial in busy healthcare organisations. RPA bots can serve as “digital assistants,” such as when an email is delivered to a specific inbox. The bot can scan the email for important information and forward it to the appropriate parties.
Capability for pre-registration
Once patients submit the required form, unattended bots can expedite the preregistration process. Patients can submit information at any time of day or night using online portals. Overnight, bots can access databases, fill in gaps on submitted forms, flag exceptions, and do other things. When employees arrive in the morning, they will find complete documentation.
Last Thoughts
Today’s healthcare systems are undergoing a radical transformation as automation introduces new features in a wide range of healthcare processes. Revenue Cycle Management is a critical function for healthcare providers to begin their automation journey. Leading healthcare providers are implementing cutting-edge RCM automation technologies such as RPA to boost practice productivity.
