Every business owner, no matter the industry, always believes their business should be, or could be, earning more revenue. This is just as true in medicine as it is in retail, restaurant, or real estate.
Sometimes a business can find an increase in revenue by finding and targeting a new base of customers or unveiling a new product or service. However, it could be the case that you are already generating the revenue you need.
Let us explain.
During the normal course of day-to-day business operations, just about every business “loses” revenue. Lost revenue can happen several ways and can be specific for an industry or business. The key is identifying where your business, or practice might be losing revenue and then taking corrective action.
Let’s examine where your practice could be losing revenue.
- Too Many Rejected Claims – There are many reasons that a claim may get rejected so an occasional rejected claim is not necessarily an issue. The problem comes when you have too many rejected claims. Each rejected claim must be investigated to understand why it was rejected. This means an employee must stop what they would normally be doing in order to look into a rejected claim. If you have too many rejected claims the opportunity cost can become too high.
- Coding Issues – One specific reason a practice might be experiencing too many rejected claims is due to issues with coding. This deserves special mention because of how incorrect coding can negatively impact your revenue cycle. Not only could incorrect coding result in rejected claims, but it could also lead to being underpaid for services provided. If you believe that your revenue is not where it should be, your coding practices could be a good place to start looking.
- Too Many No-Shows – Patient no-shows are a frustrating reality for every medical practice. When a patient does not show up for an appointment that is essentially lost revenue. If your practice begins to see an increase in patient no-shows, then you must look to implement measures to limit them.
- Unhappy Patients – This reason for lost revenue might be the most difficult one to determine because you may not even realize that you have unhappy patients. Many patients who are unhappy may not say anything to you or post something on social media, however they will tell their friends and family. It is important to understand how your patients are feeling about their visits to your practice. When you know that a patient has a bad experience you can respond in an appropriate manner.
- Poorly Trained Staff – Something that could contribute to everything listed above is a poorly trained staff. A poorly trained staff could make more coding mistakes which could lead to more rejected claims. A poorly trained staff may not properly communicate with your patients about their appointments, leading to no-shows. And a poorly trained staff could make for a frustrating experience, leading to unhappy patients. Making sure your staff is properly trained, and retrained, should be a top priority.
It can be very difficult to pin down the exact reason why your practice could be losing revenue. However, if you believe that the efforts of your practice should be yielding more revenue, then you should look into everything we listed above. Once you determine what the issue could be, then you can begin to implement mitigation strategies to resolve the problem.