Patients come first; that is indeed the truth. However, if the revenue doesn’t come next, it can’t stay in business. This is because Dental Revenue Cycle Management is not a simple thing to do it. Like, what can go wrong in the Dental Practice’s Revenue Cycle? – Everything! Everything… The correspondence with insurance companies can lag, your in-house staff can make errors throughout the reimbursement process, or your approach can become outdated because of the new regulations.
There’s no one thing that’s enough to concentrate on, when it comes to Dental RCM. Each step and process should be taken care of, without any errors and lag. After a long day of your Dental Care, you don’t have to worry about your Revenue, and you get beautiful sleep. So, it’s crucial to know and consider Dental Revenue Cycle Management. Yes, this Blog is all about Dental RCM. Let’s find out everything about that, right from the basics.
You’ll learn several strategies to keep the Revenue Cycle Management Dental Process strong, without spending extra dollars on denials and additional looks. As you’ll see, it’s all about changing and staying efficient.
What is Dental Revenue Cycle Management?
Dental Revenue Cycle Management (Dental RCM) is a Process of Managing the Financial Aspects of a Dental Practice, from Patient Appointment Scheduling to Insurance Claims Processing and Payment Collection. It involves Tracking and Managing the Revenue generated from patient visits and treatments, ensuring timely and accurate Billing, and minimizing the risk of Revenue loss.
Dental RCM includes various tasks such as Patient Registration, Insurance Verification, Coding and Billing, Claims Submission, Payment Posting, Denial Management, and Patient Collections. The primary goal of Dental RCM is to streamline the Billing and Payment process, reduce errors and delays, and increase the practice’s overall Revenue.
A well-executed Dental RCM Strategy can help Dental Practices to maximize their Revenue, reduce Administrative Costs, and improve Patient Satisfaction. Either you can manage the RCM cycle with the in-house team, or Outsource to third-party Dental RCM Services; the agency which generally manages the practice’s RCM is called Dental Practice Management or Dental Revenue Cycle Management Agency.
Common Challenges Associated with Dental Revenue Cycle Management
Here are some of the Common Dental Revenue Cycle Challenges most Dental Practices face. Do any look familiar? No issues, you’ll find the solution in this Blog.
1.Estimating the Correct Patient Portions
As a Dental Practice, you will always have to consider insurance coverage when figuring out your patient’s charge when providing Dental Services. So, any miscalculation in determining patient liability will have an effect on your Revenue Cycle Management. Sadly, this will cause your Cash Flow to decrease. It doesn’t help that insurance laws and criteria are continuously changing.
2.Improving Cash Flow with Increased Production
It can be quite challenging for Dental practitioners to increase their Cash Flow. This presents a significant issue for Revenue Cycle Management. Your output rate affects your Cash Flow in addition to insurance understatements. So, it should be obvious that boosting production is the answer to this problem.
To execute this successfully, you will need an accurate production analysis, though. Unfortunately, a lot of the tools out there don’t produce reports with data that can be used.
3.Curating a List of Insurance Carriers
Any Dental Practice that deals with Insurance Companies may find it difficult, because they give you little to no wiggle space in your pricing negotiations.
Curating your List of Insurance Providers and eliminating any that don’t bring you enough business or patients is the apparent answer in this situation. This isn’t always the most practical course of action, though, as it might reduce the number of patients in your neighborhood, if most of them use the same Insurance Providers.
How to Streamline Your Dental Revenue Cycle Management Process to Maximize Cash Flow
1.Collect & Verify Patient Information
Initially, from the get-to-go, capturing all contact and insurance information when your Patient walks in is crucial. Technically, the Dental RCM Process is called Patient Demographics, one of the imperative processes that directly influence reimbursements. Ensure your front desk staff collects all this information accurately to make this flow perfect to the core. We’d suggest Online Patient Forms eliminate data errors during entry. During each subsequent visit, it’s better to ask patients whether they have changed their contact or insurance information or not.
However, … Don’t get stopped there; verify the information too.
2.Drop Unprofitable Insurance Carriers
So, why should you drop Unprofitable Insurance Carriers? It is because it’s incorporated with your financial side of the Dental Practice. If you made a contract with the Insurance Companies that leave you unpaid it’s not a good case. To review which one is required, there are smart ways to analyze and drop Insurance Carriers from your list.
It’s best to note how much revenue the patients of each Insurance Company bring to the financial side of your Dental RCM. To get the Hawkeye of this data, you can get an analytic report from your Dental Practice Management Systems to show this. This can help you bring in more profitable patients, grow your Dental Practice and streamline your Dental Revenue Cycle Management.
3.Using Good Billing Practices
After deducting the insurance portion, you’ll frequently need to charge your patient the balance of the amount. Therefore, you may not always receive the whole payment right away.
Receiving payment for the charges you submit to the Insurance Company may take some time. To prevent payment rejections, make sure you submit the appropriate Billing Codes for the charges.
If you can prevent payment denials, you won’t have to spend time resubmitting claims and making pointless calls. Payment refusals can lower Cash Flow, resulting in a disaster in Revenue Cycle Management, which is something you must prevent at all costs.
Send Patient Billing Statements out as soon as possible, so that your likelihood of receiving payment on time will rise as a result.
4.Understand Your Revenue Cycle Management Dental Data
It’s fantastic if your Dental Practice Management Software has powerful reporting capabilities, but you need to be able to rapidly generate reports with useful information.
With the correct tools, you can quickly and easily comprehend your Cash Flow for the entire year. This information will improve your Revenue Cycle Management. Based on the overhead goal you set at the beginning of each year, it can also help you determine when to buy supplies.
5.Maintaining a Full Schedule
It’s advantageous for your practice to keep new customers coming in, but it’s also advantageous for your Dental Revenue Cycle Management and Accounts Receivable Department. Since your patients are too busy to book “right now”, but they vow to get back to you with dates, keeping track of Appointments, Follow-ups, Annual checkups, and all other procedures is critical.
It’s not just about Scheduling the Appointment, either; you’ll want to take advantage of every chance to hasten the process of admitting your patients, providing them with care, and getting paid. That means, for Scheduling and Cash Flow purposes:
Data entry into your system should be as simple and tidy as feasible.
Facilitating the transfer of patient data where it needs to go for your employees.
Making certain that everything is ready before a patient visits the office.
Dental Revenue Cycle Management Solutions for Your Practice & Patients
By managing your Dental Revenue Cycle, you can make sure that your Cash Flow is consistent and that your staff is working to maintain it. Although it provides Dental Care, your Dental Office is also a place of commerce. With these pointers, you can confidently Manage your Revenue Cycle.
MHRCM is a reliable source of Cash Flow for Companies searching for Dental Billing and Dental RCM Services. Running your practice is simple and successful when you have a clear, accurate, and compliant Invoicing Process.
Make an Appointment to speak with one of our Specialists to learn more about how Outsourcing Dental Billing can result in simple Revenue Cycle Management.