Effective revenue cycle management (RCM) helps ensure that you maintain a sustainable cash flow and get paid for the services you provide.
Identifying and implementing effective mental health billing solutions makes it both easy and affordable to mental and behavioral health practices to get – and keep – control of their revenue cycle.
The concept of RCM is to track and manage the revenue generated from patient services. The cycle begins at the time the patient schedules an appointment and concludes upon the receipt of full (or final) payment.
The functions that comprise the cycle are all those that contribute to capturing, managing and collecting fees for services rendered. This typically includes medical coding and billing, submitting insurance claims, sending out patient billings and statements, receiving and booking payments, etc.
If you fail to correctly code or submit an insurance claim, it will inevitably delay payment. If you don’t maintain updated patient information, billings and statements may not reach their desired target. These are only two examples of how the revenue cycle can go astray if not carefully and purposefully managed.
No matter how large or how small your behavioral health practice might be, implementing the principles of RCM is critical.
The efficient inflow of patient services revenue is what keeps your practice alive. If you cannot maintain a steady flow, you cannot pay your staff or cover basic expenses. Even single-therapist practices must manage cash flow. Chasing payments from insurers and collecting outstanding balances from patients is not only a drain on time (whether yours or your staff’s) but it can also be frustrating and even demoralizing.
Ultimately, it can be difficult or impossible for your practice to deliver exceptional care if you don’t have sufficient cash flow – or if you’re spending too much time attempting to collect claims and payments.
Often, behavioral health practices lack the infrastructure to properly manage the revenue cycle. The time and effort required to design and implement effective RCM can be overwhelming. Without this critical tool in place, however, you could be throwing money away.
Mental health billing solutions, including verification of benefits, authorizations, coding and billing, claim follow-up and claim denial appeals, can provide the real-world answers you need. Outsourcing these services places the responsibility into the hands of experienced professionals, leaving you free to provide the compassionate services your clients need to recover.
You might be surprised to know just how affordable therapy billing services can be. In fact, depending on where your RCM efforts are currently, you could easily cover the costs in increased revenue capture.
Threshold Billing Solutions is one of the few medical billing services that specialized in behavioral health practices, including detox, rehab and recovery facilities, intensive outpatient and residential treatment providers.
Contact us know to learn more about our mental health billing solutions, custom tailored to meet your specific needs.
Get started today so you can focus on providing quality patient care.
