Ideally, physicians would concentrate on patient needs and leave the finance issues to sort themselves out. However, reduced insurance reimbursements, evolving government programs and regulations, and advancing technology for medical and business improvements, too often force physicians to divert attention from patient care to keep their medical practices alive and healthy.

Fortunately, profitable operations with front- and back-office improvements can give physician and patient security in the quality delivered at the point of care. With numerous choices and limited budgets, it’s important to sort out the options available for optimizing practice performance in a complex healthcare environment.

External Factors Affecting Physician Financial Management
While insurance companies continue to cut corners and reduce claim reimbursements, many physicians are left helpless until their contract expires. Also, small reductions go largely unnoticed until a substantial amount of revenue is missing. Then, physicians are often surprised at the broad impact of insurance policy changes on the bottom line.

With EMR and HIPAA requirements, physicians are also preoccupied by federal program requirements and regulations. Besides staying current on updates and additions, implementing those same changes into practice workflow can create quite the headache.

Without a doubt, investments in technology can stress a physician’s budget, operational systems, and patience. Keeping pace with changing capabilities, enhancements, and upgrades can present obstacles to integrating existing systems with new tools, software, policies, and processes.

Internal Factors Physicians Can Control
Unable to control insurance, government regulations, and advancements in technology, physicians should focus on optimizing the factors within their control to create and maintain a thriving medical business.

Resources and tools for simplifying revenue cycle management (RCM), workflow optimization, and integration of complementary technology systems can help improve the quality of information gathered and relieve the workload and stress of managing physician finances.

Outsourcing to Experts
All of these aspects can be outsourced to companies specializing in financial management to relieve physician burdens and optimize business operations and financial performance. By focusing attention on fine-tuning the systems, technology, and processes affecting practice performance, financial management companies help you improve patient care, manage insurance issues efficiently, and fill technology, workflow, and information gaps.

Analyzing and optimizing the claims process can decrease denied claims and speed reimbursements and A/R cycles. Outsourcing also provides access to advanced, cost-effective solutions, integrating the appropriate technology and processes for your type and size of practice, saving you the time and expense of managing the latest advances and updates in your IT and financial infrastructure.

Improving Data Collection and Capture
One of the missing pieces in fully automating and optimizing RCM has traditionally been the capture and standardization of benefit and payment information from financial institutions and payors.

Of the latest technology available, imaging has come to the forefront of financial management to help fill this void and transform the revenue cycle workflow.

Imaging is a useful data access tool that transforms RCM by capturing and organizing data of different types from different sources into an electronic format that various systems can utilize and share. By pulling all the pieces together, imaging integrates your practice management system with your enterprise data warehouse, allowing faster claims processing, more automation in secondary claims filing and improved denial management and over-the-counter collections.

Through the implementation of imaging, physicians can achieve significant benefits relating directly to payment posting, secondary claims processing, A/R management, patient services, and disaster recovery.

A comparison of traditional data collection to optimization with imaging demonstrates the advantages of automation and integration for physicians who want to maximize the productivity and profitability of their practices (see Figure).

This is a trackable, scaleable program. You can track the response almost immediately and test one ad against another to measure performance. You can also measure your return on investment (ROI).

Choosing the Best Solution for Your Needs
Before choosing a solution or provider, physicians should consider key factors such as integration, transition costs, and return on investment (ROI).

Because outlay cost and ROI is top-of-mind when investing, physicians are challenged to balance the practical needs of the practice against the associated costs of their specific practice. Higher costs with one solution may be justified if it meets the practice’s priorities and optimizes existing technology and processes.

Knowing how the imaging system works, supports, and aligns with your existing technology is the key to integration. An imaging solution incompatible with your environment will bring little or no benefit to your team.

Transition for your staff will always involve learning, but the transition should be smooth and well-supported to ensure minimal lag time and effect on regular business.

A holistic view of enhancing the information gathering capabilities of your practice will help gauge overall value in potential return on investment that will impact both patients and the bottom line.