Today, business owners recognize the surge in healthcare demand can impose risks in health and business because this overburdened the healthcare system. It also means that if a patient’s inquiries are not managed well, it results in increased frustration and ultimately making them unsatisfied with the healthcare service they’re receiving from your company. Lastly, financial stress can surface and lost productivity from your healthcare team creates even greater chaos.

But like all high-achievers business owners who are forward-thinker, and solution-oriented, they recognize that one of the most productive solution is to outsource a team of Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) such as a team patient concierge to address specifically surge in patient inquiries during a surge of healthcare demand. To fully appreciate their support in this type of business challenge, here are the 3 major roles:

1. Decrease Patient Wait Time

With limited staff and long queues, wait times are alway inevitable. The traditional system’s way to counter this is increasing in-house staff numbers to accommodate the surge which poses  an enormous and expensive operational expense for healthcare organizations. But by outsourcing a relatively low-cost team of patient concierge with a trusted partner, you can get better results for significantly less cost – freeing up funds for use elsewhere.

An outsourced team of patient concierge allows your core healthcare members to focus on patient and treatment related responsibilities because calls, emails, and other forms of inquiries will be addressed by this dedicated team, lessening your patient’s wait time because someone will respond solely for their concerns. This also allows a smooth patient flow because they can book appointments in their own time and get updates without leaving the comfort of their own home. An outsourced patient concierge team is also available 24 hours a day and requires minimal interaction. Just a few taps of a phone and an appointment is booked.

2. Encourages patient-centered care

As mentioned above, having a dedicated team of patient concierge during surge of healthcare demand enables your medical staff to focus on patient-centered duties. No healthcare experience will be positive if the actual treatment and care your team member is providing is only half-focused efforts. With a dedicated patient concierge team, medical staff are kept informed of not only appointments but all relevant information they need to know before a patient arrives or visits your hospital. They will be well guided through all necessary information throughout the patient’s journey resulting in patients feeling well taken cared and heard. Outsourcing your patient concierge team makes every appointment more efficient and encourages building a better patient relationship.

3. Ensures Patient Satisfaction

Patient concierges work strategically by targeting critical areas that affect overall patient satisfaction. Decreasing wait time and allowing medical team members to focus on patient care ensures increased patient satisfaction. In a survey, it states that 99% of patients agree that their satisfaction increased because of the hospital’s concierge service. 

And since a team of patient concierges manage the non-clinical responsibilities to primarily focus on patient concerns prior, during and after the course of treatment, the benefits are four-fold; high patient satisfaction, streamlined patient flow, clinical efficiency and decrease in clinician burnout.

It has been identified that 20-30% of dollars spent in the US healthcare system is sent to waste due to unnecessary spending, building a team of patient concierge is best done with a trusted outsourcing partner. They usually have A+ recruitment process that can hire and on-board your team within 30-45 days, have access to world-class talent at a more cost efficient labor cost allowing a projected savings of up to 70%, and a Net Promoter Score of >60 as your insurance of the quality of service as well as the operational excellence they can provide to your company. All of these best traits yield to:

• Operational excellence
• Building a great, high-performing Patient Concierge and RCM team
• Operational cost savings of up to 70%
• Information and data security thru ISO 27001 and 9001 certification, GDPR, HIPAA compliance
• 100% overall patient satisfaction
• 95% first call resolution
• Net Promoter Score: Sense of security and peace of mind

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performance Revenue Cycle Management team composed of:

Patient Support Services

• Patient Concierge Specialist
•  Insurance Verification Specialist
• Collections Specialist
• A/R Specialist

Provider Management Services

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Claims Processors
• Enrollment Processors
• Denial Management Specialist

Health Analytics and Risk Management Services

• Healthcare Analyst

Others

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

For a free business consultation, you can schedule an appointment here.

Since there are different comprehensive health plans available like individual policies, employer-sponsored or exchange plans, policyholders often call their insurance providers to inquire about coverage, cancellation, extension or simply clarification about their plan. But in today’s healthcare climate where there is a rise in chronic illnesses coupled with the existing pandemic, many people are apprehensive with their health insurance plans.

And because each policyholder has unique insurance plans, the change in the health economy and the rise of distinct situations brought by health crises, these can cause some degree of confusion to policyholders which in return can trigger them to seek clarifications to their insurers resulting in a surge of inquiries through call, chat and email. To overcome this, here are 2 best ways to effectively deal with surge insurance inquiries and claims.

1. Employ a great customer service team

Having a great customer service team that can address and respond to these surge of queries helps lighten the load of health insurance companies all the while giving utmost assurance and clarity to policyholders amidst the era of uncertainty. Because with the difference of cost-sharing among plans, it makes sense that people will call their insurance company to find out exactly what is and isn’t being covered. And it is crucial to answer these queries efficiently and effectively especially that there is a significant decrease of policies due to insurance cancellations. This is one way for insurers to retain their existing clients.

To address this, try incorporating several dimensions of your healthcare business supply chain through outsourcing from vendors that have been aiding healthcare companies in the telehealth and health insurance fields. Partnering with third parties like outsourcing companies for patient concierge, medical review specialists and other patient inquiry-related concerns can support production capacity by freeing clinicians from answering phone calls and responding to appointment inquiries. They can also help oversee the day to day peer review process from acceptance of medical cases for review, facilitating first level screening if applicable and preparation of case review documents to be endorsed to doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. A team of dedicated customer service can focus on answering questions and making sure that these inquiries are responded accordingly.

2. Incorporate a Dedicated Revenue Cycle Management Team

Increase in inquiries can also result in an increased number of claims or the inquiries are an outcome of some denials. Therefore, having a dedicated RCM team in your business is one sure way to address surge in inquiries and claims.  Your RCM team are experts on diagnosis and procedure codes, you are assured that they are to make accurate claims submission that can positively impact revenue cycle. To capture diagnosis codes for billing purposes, the industry uses the  International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Hence, make sure that your RCM team should have expert knowledge on ICD-10 and CPT coding to yield accurate claims.

Outsourcing your customer service team and dedicated RCM experts ensures that surge in inquiries will be taken care of and any potential issues in claims will be addressed. These teams can also work remotely with the following workout results:

• Patient satisfaction
• 95% coding, billing and documentation accuracy
• 1 hour turnaround time
• Improved denial management rate
• HIPAA and DPA-20212 compliance

The right outsourcing partner not only ensure building a great and high-performing Customer service and RCM, it also ensures:

• Operational savings of up to 70%
• Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) and efficient process
• Information Security
• Maximize revenue
• NPS >60

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performance Revenue Cycle Management team composed of:

Patient Support Services

• Patient Concierge Specialist
•  Insurance Verification Specialist
• Collections Specialist
• A/R Specialist

Provider Management Services

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Claims Processors
• Enrollment Processors
• Denial Management Specialist

Health Analytics and Risk Management Services

• Healthcare Analyst

Others

Let’s work together to build a great  RCM Team.

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Healthcare business process outsourcing, or simply Healthcare BPO is an outsourced business activity or process that provides support and administrative functions to healthcare providers and organizations. One example is Revenue cycle management (RCM) services such as medical coding and billing, and transcription which are some of the most commonly outsourced.

Through the years, changes in the healthcare landscape coupled with growing patient expectations have led to the resurgence of the BPO trend in the industry. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act, implementation of ICD-10, and shift toward value-based healthcare are just some of these changes that left hospital staff working harder than ever to keep up with the boost in complex claims and comply with conflicting mandates for improved quality and reduced costs.

With this, a report by MarketsandMarkets projected that the global healthcare BPO market will reach USD 312.43 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 10.2% during the forecast period (2017-2022). The primary attribute to this growth is the “rising focus on reducing operational cost and availing outside expertise to ensure performance efficiency and improvement.”

Indeed, outsourcing healthcare services for RCM has a lot of advantages. For one, it helps healthcare providers solely focus on what they do best and that is providing holistic care to their patients. It is also very cost-effective since outsourcing generates a pool of professionals on behalf of the company, thereby saving you cost in acquiring and training additional staff. Finally, the process reduces billing errors with highly skilled and trained professionals in your team, which in turn maximizes feedback assistance on reimbursements and future assets

Now, if you are interested to partner with a healthcare outsourcing company for your business or organization, here are five traits that you should look for:

1. Industry Experience and Expertise

There is no substitute for experience in outsourcing, so make sure that before choosing a partner, check for a proof of positive track record of industry & domain expertise, number of years they have been offering these services, and client partnership tenure and company reputation & success rates such as Net Promoter Score (NPS). In line with this, they should also have the right expertise and knowledge when it comes to such a sensitive sector that is healthcare in order to render services effectively. As an example, Medicare claims processing is something that can be difficult to build internally, but is the exact skill that an outsourcing provider specializing in medical billing excels at. This can result in significant increase in collections.

2. Range of Services and Quality of Talent

Another thing to factor in when choosing an healthcare BPO is its range of services, From billing, coding, clinical documentation, telehealth services, and more, it would be best if you go for a one-stop provider as this will save you from the trouble of working with different providers for different services. At the same time, dealing with one company enhances overall efficiency and accuracy.

Good providers also insist on building a dedicated team of highly-experienced healthcare professionals who can deliver quality results. You may want to look for one that houses talents with the skill and experience necessary to adapt the current technology you are using and be able to continuously improve on it. Usually, a great partner has A+ recruitment team and process who has access to world-class talent despite the competitive talent pool.

3. Compliant to International Standards on Data Management

Since you will be dealing with personal health information of patients, your healthcare solutions partner must be one that is ISO certified and HIPAA compliant. ISO, also known as International Organization for Standardization, is the certification for any business to deliver a consistent level of quality to its customers by having well-defined and regularly checked processes. HIPAA, on the other hand, stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which develops standards and rules that protect the security and privacy of personal health information. 

4. Tech-Forward

Keeping up with the fast-paced digital world can only be done through the use of top-notch technology. When selecting your healthcare solutions partner, see to it that they use the necessary software and a well-maintained infrastructure preferably with both back-up power and storage to secure the compiling and storing of patients’ data.

Additionally, you may opt for a provider that is technology-agnostic or one that has the flexibility to adapt to your healthcare organization’s current technology and enhance it further. With a technology agnostic healthcare solutions provider, the enhancement of your current technology will not be based off of any pre-existing models; rather, it will be customized and tailor-made to cater to your business solutions. This will ensure that your technology is humanized in such a way that it solves the bigger picture problems while allowing your healthcare business to hit its goals.

PRO TIP: High Net Promoter Score

Net promoter score helps businesses gauge the quality of the customer service offered by outsourcing companies. Organisations can use NPS to assess which outsourcing service is best to partner with because this score shows loyalty trends and growth revenue outputs.

In a way, NPS represents the primary way customers survey their experience because it means that their clients are happy which results in customer loyalty and retention, making this a critical trait a BPO company should have. When used correctly, NPS (of at least 60%) can tell you how well the BPO is performing, how often they resolve issues, and if their clients are satisfied with their experience.

All these qualities and more can be found with the right outsourcing partner who can provide a customized, high quality healthcare business solutions that can promise for the following:

• Operational excellence
• Build a great healthcare & RCM team specifically designed for your unique needs
• Operational cost savings of up to 70%
• Information and data security
• Sense of security and peace of mind

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performance Revenue Cycle Management team composed of:

Patient Support Services

• Patient Concierge Specialist
•  Insurance Verification Specialist
• Collections Specialist
• A/R Specialist

Provider Management Services

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Claims Processors
• Enrollment Processors
• Denial Management Specialist

Health Analytics and Risk Management Services

• Healthcare Analyst

Others

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Clinical documentation is an integral part of patient care. With this, a thorough record of the diagnoses made, symptoms observed, and services provided on a patient is created. In short, this is the foundation of a patient’s medical record. When done precisely, it can be used to submit valid claims for reimbursement, but on the flip side, incomplete and inaccurate documentation on patient care or those that do not support the billing codes may result in denial of claims. 

To prevent this from happening, Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) must be done to ensure that the events of the patient encounter are captured accurately and the electronic health record (EHR) properly reflects the services that were provided.

Ultimately, it is focused on two things:

1. improving the quality and value of clinical documentation to improve patient care

2. maximizing revenue and reducing medical coding and billing errors

When it comes to conducting CDI, it is beneficial to have a dedicated team of Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) specialists on your operations.

This team consists of:

• Medical coders and billers – who have the role of translating a patient encounter into the languages used from claims submission and reimbursement

• Clinical documentation specialists – who review medical records, ensure medical codes have been inputted correctly

Below are 4 reasons how a great team of RCM experts improves your Clinical Documentation process:

1. They have expert knowledge on ICD-10 and CPT coding

Diagnosis codes play an important part in clinical documentation. These are used to describe a patient’s condition or injury, as well as social determinants of health and other patient characteristics. To capture diagnosis codes for billing purposes, the industry uses the  International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10).

Procedure codes, on the other hand, complement diagnosis codes by indicating what providers did during an encounter. The two main procedure coding systems are the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes and the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS). 

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) determines the ICD-10 coding guidelines that affect the reimbursement rate for health systems, which have the tendency to change every year. Outsourced medical coders and billers, especially those who are certified by accredited organizations, have extensive and current knowledge of these codes given that they have to undergo an annual recertification exam to keep their credentials. This is especially useful in the process of improving clinical documentation.

2. They submit accurate claims that improve revenue

Given that your RCM team are experts on diagnosis and procedure codes, you are assured that they are to make accurate claims submission that can positively impact revenue cycle. It has been proven that through CDI, revenue can be maximized. To support this, a 2016 Black Book Market Research survey found that nearly 90 percent of hospitals that used CDI solutions earned at least $1.5 million more in healthcare revenue and claims reimbursement.

RevCyle Intelligence, a leading online resource for the latest news and product information about the healthcare revenue cycle, claims reimbursement, and medical billing for providers, also reported that the Summit Healthcare Regional Medical Center in Arizona achieved a 20 percent increase in its case mix index after implementing a CDI program. Altogether, the case mix index improvement resulted in nearly $560,000 in additional revenue in less than a year.

3. They allow physicians to focus on patient care

A 2016 AMA study reports that only 27% of their work time is spent on the patient, while 49% is consumed just for EHR documentation. In addition to more time being spent on records alone, they input an additional average of two hours after their work time for EHR data entry. Doctors spend more time inputting the information rather than observing the proper approach and discussing the treatment with the patients.

4. They are certified with data privacy compliance

Because clinical documentation is often scanned into an electronic system and often interactive and viewed by simultaneously different healthcare providers, it is vital that patient’s records are kept safe and secured.

Although a patient’s record and chart belongs to the facility or healthcare organization, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology the health record is “not just a collection of data that you are guarding—it’s a life”. Hence, there are three major ethical priorities for electronic health records: privacy and confidentiality, security, and data integrity and availability.

A great team of RCM are often HIPAA and DPA20212 compliant because they value privacy and confidentiality and understand that patient information should be released to others only with the patient’s permission or as allowed by law despite having all access to these records for the clinical documentation process.

With an outsourced team of RCM experts, clinical physicians will have more time in their hands to spend on patient interaction rather than on EHR and clinical documentation. Your RCM team can also work remotely with the following workout results:

• 95% coding, billing and documentation accuracy
• 1 hour turnaround time
• Improved denial management rate
• ISO 27001 and 9001, GDPR, HIPAA and DPA-20212 compliant

The right outsourcing partner not only ensure building a great and high-performing RCM team mentioned above but also ensure:

• Operational savings of up to 70%
• Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) and efficient process
• Information Security
• Maximize revenue

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performance Revenue Cycle Management team composed of:

Patient Support Services

• Patient Concierge Specialist
•  Insurance Verification Specialist
• Collections Specialist
• A/R Specialist

Provider Management Services

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Claims Processors
• Enrollment Processors
• Denial Management Specialist

Health Analytics and Risk Management Services

• Healthcare Analyst

Others

Let’s work together to build a great  RCM Team.

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

On a daily basis, an average healthcare professional is loaded with core tasks such as assessing the patient, plan treatment course, execute tests and diagnostic procedures all the while documenting every step provided and performed to the patient. Simply put, their workload is never light. When administrative tasks such as coding, billing, patient concierge and claims processing add to their existing work, it may distract them from their core responsibilities.

And with the increase in workload demands and a significant decrease in healthcare workforce and resources, medical professionals need the back-up support they can get from Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). This article will showcase 3 ways a dedicated RCM team helps lighten the burden from healthcare providers.

1. Correct billing and collection errors freeing healthcare providers from administrative tasks

Medical billing and collection errors account for 80% of problems for healthcare revenue management. Examples of these are;

• Upcoding: where entering the code of a more serious medical condition than what was treated inflates the bill
• leftover billing
• duplicate billing
• incorrect patient information
• mismatched diagnosis codes

These errors make it difficult to ensure collections from patients. If your primary healthcare team has to handle these administrative tasks, they would need to spend more time completing paperworks and trying to adjust to the latest changes in medical billing than actually performing care and treatment related responsibilities. But having a dedicated RCM team will help your business overcome these challenges, not only because they are trained with the latest billing and coding standards such as the ICD-10,  they also focus solely on getting these tasks done right with quality and proficiency (i.e. <1hour turnaround time and zero coding errors). In return, this will lead to an increase in the level of patient care and thus make practices more patient-centric.

2. Improve business revenue and practice profitability

According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), 50-65% of denials go unworked. It means that healthcare businesses are missing out on revenue and on the opportunity to detect denial trends to prevent future occurrences if there is no dedicated team to perform revenue management tasks. 

While this can happen at various points in the revenue cycle, denial management is a common weak spot for many practices. That is why outsourcing an RCM team that can solely perform tasks from claims submission to payer collections to a trusted partner can help you avoid revenue slipping through the cracks. As they focus on RCM cycle processes, there will be increased cash flow and more prospects for optimization. On the other hand, this promotes clarity between responsibilities from your in-house healthcare team by allowing them to devote their time and energy on patient care.

3. Business recovery support allowing patient-centric efforts from healthcare team

A trusted partner who can build you a great, high-performing RCM team will be your additional support during business recovery because they help you overcome the limited supply of workforce which not only lighten your in-house healthcare team’s workload but also allows you to save 70% on operation cost, innovate care technologies to ease manual labor and process improvement for your healthcare business, and ensure patient data security with an established Information and Cybersecurity processes.

A reliable partner and RCM team mitigates disruption from major industry changes. Not only would the right partner help you manage ICD-10 updates in coding, they are more likely to generate and complete higher volume of denials at a required turnaround time and also share industry expertise to help you navigate through any industry transition more easily. Whether it’s ICD-10 or another monumental shift, outsourcing to a trusted partner can be a great way to mitigate disruption during times of change.

Building Top RCM Teams

Building the right team creates a well-oiled RCM process. In return it can result in:

• 95% coding, billing and documentation accuracy
• 1 hour turnaround time
• Improved denial management rate
•  HIPAA and DPA-20212 compliant

And turning to a trusted outsourcing company to help you build this team gives you access to a world-class pool of talent all the while saving up to 70% operational cost without compromising quality of work and maintaining operational excellence. The right partner also has an established Information Security in place to ensure patient data confidentiality regardless if working on site or remotely. 

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performance Revenue Cycle Management team composed of:

Patient Support Services

• Patient Concierge Specialist
•  Insurance Verification Specialist
• Collections Specialist
• A/R Specialist

Provider Management Services

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Claims Processors
• Enrollment Processors
• Denial Management Specialist

Health Analytics and Risk Management Services

• Healthcare Analyst

Others

Let’s work together to build a great  RCM Team.

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Having a competent and skilled team of healthcare professionals is key to quality patient care and in the long run, it can guarantee business’s success. According to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), a great team of healthcare specialists each play an important role in patient treatment. With varying skills and experiences, they collaborate and coordinate for the common purpose of meeting patient needs. And to ensure reaching the goals of your organization, we listed ways to amp up your healthcare team.

Top 3 Methods:

It is important to constantly introduce improvements to your healthcare team to certify the quality and efficiency in the service that you provide. To help you out, here are some practical ways to make your healthcare team more effective:

1. Encourage trust and collaboration

In general, teamwork is what makes a team great. Effective teamwork, as stated in the aforementioned NAM report, depends on the members’ ability to trust one another and communicate a mistake, question, or suggestion without apprehensions. It allows them to learn together and collaborate regardless of positions and status.

In healthcare, teamwork is crucial for patient safety in terms of minimizing errors that may result from miscommunication and misunderstanding as well as reducing factors that may lead to burnout in the workplace. Bringing a group of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals together is indeed challenging. With this, you can introduce initiatives that can strengthen teamwork within your team such as team-building exercises where they can feel more engaged and connected to their place of work, and regular huddles where the teams can briefly discuss concerns and updates for each department, which can increase awareness and encourage better communication.

2. Incorporate telehealth in your operations

Nowadays, the power of technology has permeated every industry. For medicine and healthcare, telehealth is a welcomed innovation that entails countless benefits for patients, healthcare providers and your business.

By integrating digital and communication technologies such as computers and mobile devices, it makes healthcare services remotely accessible to patients and most importantly the medical professionals. In effect, it improves the healthcare delivery system, allowing your team to manage diagnosis, treatment, charting and communicating to the patient and with each other more efficiently.

Incorporating telehealth in your operations is one sure step to enhance your healthcare team in such a way where they can expand their workload and avoid overworking themselves since through virtual visits and online consultations, making their schedules more flexible. In return, as your team accepts more patients and renders more services, you can expect a growth in revenue in your business.

There are still a plethora of benefits that telehealth can provide your business ranging from increased patient satisfaction and engagement to creation of a digital portal for your patients. To experience these, you may want to consider the option of adding an outsourced telehealth support in your team today.

3. Know the importance of an RCM team for your business

When it comes to the business side of healthcare, a highly skilled revenue cycle management (RCM) team is what you need for success. This group of people composed of medical coders, billers, and other specialists handles important transactions such as patient scheduling and registration, insurance eligibility verification, medical coding, claims submission, claims management, payment collection and reporting.

Just like in telehealth services, outsourcing a dedicated RCM team can do wonders for the improvement of your overall healthcare team. For one, it allows the rest of your staff to focus more on caring for patients as they do not need to handle the time-consuming administrative tasks and paperwork anymore.

You can also expect an increase in care efficiency and enhanced patient experience when partnering with the right outsourcing company because of their access to certified and high-performing RCM experts. Together with the use of technology, this can significantly reduce standard billing errors such as incorrect name of the patient and wrong CPT codes, which can elevate your healthcare facility’s reputation and help you deliver the best service to your patients.

Virtual RCM team is also key to increased revenues linked to accurate coding and billing rules and timely reimbursements, and reduced operating costs as your outsourcing partner can look for a team of highly trained and available experts for a fraction of your local cost.

How build a great team 

Find a trusted healthcare outsourcing partner.

The right partner can help you build a great and dedicated healthcare team composed of experts for your unique telehealth, RCM and other healthcare needs. It can assure you of minimal denial and turnaround time for your claims while optimizing reimbursement. There is also no need to worry about spending so much on telehealth equipment and training staff as your outsourcing partner can streamline and make it more affordable for you with a 70% savings on operational cost.

When it comes to healthcare, the right outsourcing partner is ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015 certified and HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant because they understand the importance of securing your company and patient’s data.

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize your full potential.

We can build you a great, high-performing Healthcare team composed of:

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Patient Concierge
• Clinical Abstractors
• Patient Concierge
• Medical Review Specialists
• Care Navigators
• Outbound/Inbound Collections
• Other RCM Teams
• Other Healthcare Support

Let’s work together to build a great Healthcare Team

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Without a doubt, a team of skilled RCM experts expand growth significantly.

And building a great RCM is every healthcare business’s goal. Employing the right team makes your organization successful. That’s why, it is imperative that you know the top 3 RCM teams to build for your company.

Importance of Creating the Right RCM Team 

One of the main goals of any healthcare business is having the right team in place to function at peak performance. You must include experts and specialists in various disciplines within the Revenue Cycle. In this article, you will not only know what teams to build but the skills to look for.

Assembling RCM experts is never easy. However, with the right outsourcing specialist you can be confident that you are getting the absolute best. The goal is always to improve the services offered to your patients and ensure that your medical team is not overworked. By recruiting a great RCM team, healthcare becomes more efficient and effective.

The top three positions for your RCM team are: 

1. Medical coders

Medical coders are an important member of the RCM team because they are the backbone of converting patient’s records as readable medical codes for different healthcare personnel. With medical coding, modern healthcare care becomes connected.

With accurate coding, medical billers and insurance companies can work together to secure fast billing processing. Medical coding serves to classify all medical procedures and treatments in easy-to-understand codes that enables all healthcare professionals to comprehend the medical journey of a patient. Also, medical billing relies on medical codes to ensure that all healthcare providers are paid for their services and all claims are handled smoothly and efficiently for patients. 

Primary skill to look for:

Analytical and evaluation skills

Medical coders review patient records and identify different illnesses, symptoms, diagnoses, procedures and treatments and assign specific codes to each element. It is then expected for them to have good analytical and evaluation skills because there are illnesses and treatment that may appear similar yet are categorized differently.

Also, since coders translate medical documentation into a uniform set of codes, this makes them the backbone of cataloging patient information essential for tracking patient outcomes, organizing clinical databases, and maintaining population health statistics and accurate billing. Simply put, wrong coding merits wrong billing.

2. Medical billers

Another team to add in your RCM are medical billers. It is probably one of the most critical components of any healthcare business practice because they secure revenue. A team of skilled medical billers is responsible for submitting medical claims to insurance companies which is critical for the financial cycle of your company.

Medical builders have specialized knowledge on payments, bill adjustments, claim follow-up, claim denial resolution, and collections management. All of these components must be managed correctly to guarantee revenue flow.

Primary skill to look for:

Attention to detail

Medical billers work with vast information and convert them into claims to submit to insurance companies. Therefore, they need to have precise attention to details to make sure that your healthcare business is compensated properly, the patient is billed correctly, and timely payments are made.

Although the medical biller is not directly interacting with the patient and involved with care, he or she should have a good understanding of medical terminology to be able to discuss medical bills with both insurance carriers proper billing is accounted for.  Intricate attention to details allow them to identify codes properly and eliminate any billing errors.

3. Patient Concierge

This team enables patients to easily inquire about a doctor’s schedule, the type of tests they need to submit before a consultation or inquire about the lab test schedule and corresponding fees. They also maintain quality patient experience while improving patient satisfaction by assisting patients during their check-in processes and answering any inquiries or concerns the patient might have about their health concerns. They are the first “touch” in a healthcare provider’s facility, so even by speaking over the phone, they already must show empathy and genuine care.

They also reduce long wait time by managing calls, appointment-setting, and other administrative patient needs. In fact, a survey talks about how 90% of patients are satisfied with their care through patient concierge, and around 97% mentioned that the healthcare provider they are in contact with takes a personal interest in their health than those in a traditional clinical setup.

Primary skill to look for:

Communication Skills

In the healthcare industry, effective communication is a must. However, a patient concierge specialist should have the ability to work with complex information such as medical diagnosis, assessment and proper charting to communicate the patient’s concerns accordingly and refer them to the right healthcare specialist.

All information must be communicated accurately and in a truly clear and precise language. In addition, they need to convey the proper message to different healthcare staff and provide accurate data and analysis so patient’s concerns are understood and communicated precisely. Ideal communication involves not only speaking but also the ability to listen to the patient with their concerns. If the patient feels that their needs are promptly heard and addressed, this can result in high patient satisfaction.

Building Top RCM Teams

Building the right team creates a well-oiled RCM process. And turning to a trusted outsourcing company to help you build this team gives you access to a world-class pool of talents all the while saving up to 70% operational cost without compromising quality of work and maintaining operational excellence.

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize its full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performing RCM team composed of:

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Patient Concierge
• Clinical Abstractors
• Patient Concierge
• Medical Review Specialists
• Care Navigators
• Outbound/Inbound Collections
• Other RCM Teams
• Other Healthcare Support

Let’s work together to build a great  RCM Team.

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

No matter how skilled and efficient experts are with their jobs, healthcare workers are still humans who get tired and burned out at the end of the day. Stress and lack of rest can affect their performance and morale in the workplace resulting in low productivity, decreased patient satisfaction, and replacement costs. All of these can hurt your business if gone unaddressed.

The blog provides practical tips on how to avoid burnout and healthcare fatigue.

Why are they exhausted?

To alleviate this problem, you need to first determine the factors that make your healthcare team exhausted to know what areas need to be improved on and to better support your workers. Generally, the high workload in healthcare is one of the main reasons why health workers are tired. In a study on the relationship of workload, burnout, and job control, it is found that “an increase in the workload was significantly associated with higher job exhaustion.”

A recent report from the CIPD and Simplyhealth also listed workloads as one of the top three causes of stress-related absence in the workplace together with management style and relationships at work.

High workloads can be attributed to the shortage of trained staff due to the unequal demand and supply for different healthcare professionals nowadays, and the multifunctional nature of healthcare professionals which allows them to take on several roles within their practice, adding to their workload and even leading them to compromising other core responsibilities.

With more tasks on their plate, healthcare professionals resort to extended working hours, missing out on adequate rest and work-life balance. Eventually, this will lead not only to exhaustion but to low morale among the employees as well.

What can you do about it?

Just like any other workplace, communication is important in healthcare. Assure your employees that you are open to listen to them when it comes to issues and concerns in the workplace. By doing this, you can also have an insight on things you need to look into when it comes to employee management and such. Recognizing achievements and rewarding good performance are also things you can do to make them feel appreciated for their efforts and will most likely drive them to do their best at work.

More importantly, you need to find ways to effectively manage the workload in your healthcare business so that you avoid getting your staff overworked. These two sure fire ways can be the solution you need:

1. Employing telehealth in your operations

The field of telehealth empowers how patients, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals experience healthcare. Regardless of the service needed—whether a doctor’s consultation or prescription—patients conveniently access these through smart devices such as laptops and smartphones. The physical distance is crossed with the quick, real-time access of a virtual one.

Among its many benefits is the flexibility in scheduling, which helps in workload management. Since telehealth can be used virtually anywhere and anytime, healthcare professionals have more freedom in their schedule and can balance their workload for the week, for example, by offering extended hours or even weekend operations without requiring the physical office to be staffed. With this set-up, work-life balance among workers can also be attained or improved.

You can look into expanding your healthcare staff by employing RCM experts as part of your Telehealth operations. Outsourcing a great RCM team can do wonders for your business. It allows you to focus more on caring for patients, increases revenues, and is cost-efficient. More importantly, it lightens the load of administrative tasks which contributes to managing the overall workload in your healthcare facility.

2. Hiring back-up support

When all else fails, it’s never wrong to add more people to your team if it means getting the job done without sacrificing the well-being of your employees and patients. Outsourcing your healthcare workers and even telemedicine services as back-up support is one the best ways to manage workloads without breaking the bank when compared to simply hiring staff members.

Through a trusted healthcare solutions partner, you would be able to build a dedicated team of well-trained healthcare practitioners & RCM professionals specifically designed for your unique needs. Your company can also save up to 70% on operation costs employing an outsourced team and guarantee excellent work quality and performance on the job.

The right partner also has speed to market hiring process of 30 to 45 days of hiring to onboarding, your hospital staff can focus on their core function to provide care and treatment while your outsourced back up support team takes on operational responsibilities.

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize your full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

We can build you a great, high-performing RCM team composed of:

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Clinical Abstractors
• Patient Concierge
• Medical Review Specialists
• Care Navigators
• Outbound/Inbound Collections
• Other RCM Teams
• Other Healthcare Support

Let’s work together to build a great, high-performing RCM Team

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Healthcare organizations are feeling the heat to maintain all aspects of their health informatics service while still functioning on a tight budget. With the increase of healthcare demand due to the pandemic, health informatics through telehealth services are now being more utilized.

Hence, outsourcing health informatics has become quite common practice due to the cost savings and enormous benefits of welcoming skilled and dynamic professionals to an HC team. In this article, we will explore the leading 4 ways that outsourcing health informatics is transforming healthcare businesses. 

The Popularity of Outsourcing Health Informatics 

A recent Black Book poll looked at 1,600 hospital executives and 807 CIOs to find that about 34% of the organizations were expected to dramatically increase their level of HI outsourcing over the next two years. The poll also revealed that a dramatic 58% planned to outsource for experts with health informatics certifications to bring in new skills and value so they can stay on top. Without a doubt, welcoming expert health informatics personnel onto the team provides optimum technology resource skills and improved patient outcomes. 

Advantages of Outsourcing Health Informatics 

Clearly, cost reduction, access to the latest technology, data security, patient empowerment, improved communication/information exchange, and access to specialized, skilled professionals are just a few of the advantages of outsourcing health informatics.

Any healthcare business or practice wants their healthcare team to have quick access to all patient history, clinical notes, lab results, medications, x-rays, and more. In addition, they can quickly collaborate with each other from one convenient platform. Patient satisfaction is also crucial, especially since the healthcare industry has become so competitive. Without a doubt, patients benefit from better outcomes and are also able to have full access to their health records, so the entire experience is vastly improved on all fronts.

1.    Substantial Savings by Outsourcing 

So you got a great EHR system. Now you need a great team to operate and utilize the EHR, right? You have two choices, one is in-source with high price talent and the other is to outsource and save 70% with the same talent. 

All companies want to save money and stay within budget.  In fact, in some areas of the United States, the high-cost labor involved in bringing in in-house seasoned individuals to maintain critical applications is extreme and out of the budget of most businesses. Outsourcing is the perfect affordable solution to save up to 70% on operational cost and still work with seasoned professionals. 

Cost Savings Calculator

The cost of healthcare continues to go up every year. With inefficient information sharing and errors continuing to throw a wrench in the system, HC businesses must step back to figure out ways to cut cost while still maintaining a high level of care and service. Trying to fall within or under budget is a nightmare in many cases. However, outsourcing has become a cost-effective way to stay on top of technology and offer superior communication for everyone involved. 

2.             24/7 Operations 

A great outsourcing partner operates 24/7/365. This ensures that more work is being completed as compared to a regular 9 hour shift in-house staff. 

Outsourcing health informatics welcomes in the creme de la creme of skilled professionals who can seamlessly perform RCM related tasks and can support cutthroat HI softwares and apps. They work round the clock like any other healthcare professionals with a similar 24/7 shift in a hospital. This means that charts are coded almost real time and other RCM functions are completed promptly.

3.             Staying on Top with Technology

The value of health informatics lets a hospital or care center businesses stay on top of technological advances without breaking the bank. With the right outsourcing company, they will comply with the necessary software updates you need for your company. 

In many cases, it is simply impossible for the HI team to have the skill and experts needed to handle all the various software and EHR applications. However, the right outsourcing partners can build a great HI team with required expertise and competencies that can stay up to date with the latest HI technologies. They can also ensure that the tools used by the HI team are streamlined with your company’s required software updates and versions.

4.             Enhanced Security 

In addition, with the advances in technology come vulnerabilities that are a significant threat. A healthcare facility can easily become the victim of a full-scale cyberattack. In 2017, McAfee reported that the healthcare industry was the number one most attacked realm due to an increase of malware by 67%.  Clearly, the importance of protecting vital systems and data from a hacking attack cannot be overlooked. Thankfully, outsourcing helps substantially by avoiding such missteps and being ready to instigate innovating emergency protection measures when necessary if a security breach should occur. 

Data confidentiality has never been more important for patient privacy. Medical professionals have been turning to blockchain technology and methods of data encryption to stop data breaches and compromised files. Health informatics stays compliant with health security rules, policies and  all the other parameters needed to maintain patient privacy such as HIPAA and DPA2012 compliant.

Lastly, Always seek an outsourcing company that offers state-of-the-art information security to ensure that all data and patient information stays confidential and safe. 

To Sum It Up

The contribution of health informatics in healthcare is substantial and essential. Therefore, finding the right outsourcing partner for your business is crucial to reach your company’s growth and success. They can build you a great team of HI experts with access to an impressive pool of talent through their A+ recruitment team and speed to market hiring process of 30-45 days time period of hiring to on-boarding, all the while allowing you to save up to 70% on operation cost. The right partner will take care of complemental operational tasks while you focus on achieving your business goals.

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize your full potential.

Below are some examples of Health Informatics experts that we can recruit to build a team just for you:

• Clinical Data Processor
• Nurse Informatics
• Clinical Data Analysts
• EHR Onboarding Specialists
• EHR Account Managers
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Keepers
• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Clinical Abstractors
• Patient Concierge
• Medical Review Specialists
• IT consultant specializing in HI
• Other Healthcare roles

Let’s work together to build a great, high-performing Healthcare Team

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.

Medical coders play an important role in a healthcare business as they are involved in revenue cycle management. Specifically, they are tasked to translate patients’ medical reports that are utilized by insurance companies to reimburse the provider. With a role as crucial as this, it is a must to hire medical coders possessing the adequate credentials to do their jobs effectively.

The Edge of Skills and Certifications

Education and certification are among the first things you should look for in an applicant. But nowadays, a college diploma or anything of the same regard may not be enough. They should also have at least six-month training experience or even better, a certification from accredited organizations like the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) or the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

When it comes to skills, on the other hand, the following are what your applicants should possess to ensure they can perform well on the job:

5 Top Skills of a Medical Coder

1. Attention to detail

Since they will be working mainly in assigning alphanumeric codes to different medical procedures, diagnoses, and medications, having a strong attention to detail is a valuable skill a medical coder should have. A coder who is detail-oriented can easily identify the smallest differences between codes and will not be mixing them up, which if happens, is very dangerous to the patient.

Coders should also be able to handle various paperworks and documents without sacrificing quality.

2. Knowledge and understanding of medical terminologies

Medical coding is not just a clerical job. It also requires coders to have extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology, disease processes, pharmacology, the different classification systems, and more to be able to properly assign diagnostic and procedural codes to terminologies.

At the same time, they need to have expertise in various code sets for diseases and other medical ailments like the ICD-10. Each disease has its own unique ICD-10 code, and the codes are updated from time to time. As a result, medical coders need to keep abreast of the large number of current codes, and they need to be aware of any changes made.

3. Computer literacy

To make coding more accurate and faster, medical coders now use coding software programs like Epic, Centricity, AdvancedMD, Homecare, Homebase, DrChrono, Nextivity and others to input correct procedure and diagnosis codes. Most healthcare facilities nowadays also have digital databases that medical coders should know how to navigate.

Not only do medical coders need to be familiarized with these programs, they must also be excellent in typing, preferably with 10-key speed and accuracy.

4. Good communication and interpersonal skills

Since medical coders don’t often interact with other healthcare staff face-to-face, they need to have effective english communication skills and interpersonal skills to be able to communicate well with doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other healthcare professionals, and discuss patient records effectively even through other channels.

This is important to assure that vital information doesn’t get lost in translation, may it be verbal,  written or computer-mediated.

5. Ability to work independently

The nature of the job for medical coders does not require them to be always under close supervision of a manager. This is why they need to have the focus and drive to finish tasks on schedule even with the presence of distractions in the environment. Even without constant external feedback, they should maintain productivity and good performance during work hours.

By outsourcing this function with the right partner you’ll be able to build the right team of medical coders that can work with minimal supervision.

Building a Great Team

Not all medical coders are the same so it’s very important to carefully select those who have the right credentials and skills for the job. By doing this, you are assured of accurate reimbursements and documentation of patient care history. Incorrect coding can not only harm your business but patients’ lives as well.

Medical coding is a high priced job in most markets. In fact, according to data from the American Academy of Professional Coders, the average salary in the US of a medical coder is $54,890, 2019. 

But the right outsourcing partner with an excellent recruitment team will have access to world-class talents, increasing your chances of building a great medical coding team.

A trusted healthcare outsourcing partner can help you build a dedicated RCM team that can assure you of minimal denial and turnaround time for your claims while optimizing reimbursement. When it comes to healthcare, finding the right outsourcing partner can assist you whether they be growth, better productivity or simply bottom-line cost savings of up to 70%. ISO-certified, HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant are also crucial things to consider for a great partnership to secure your company and patient’s data.

Partnership with Infinit-O

Infinit-O’s mission is to create endless opportunities for your company to realize your full potential.

Infinit-O Key Benefits:

Below are some of the experts we can gather for the unique RCM and healthcare needs:

• Medical Coders
• Medical Billers
• Clinical Abstractors
• Patient Concierge
• Medical Review Specialists
• Care Navigators
• Outbound/Inbound Collections
• Other RCM Teams
• Other Healthcare Support

Let’s work together to build a great, high-performing RCM Team

Start small. Exceed expectations. Think infinitely. Think Infinit-O.