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The pandemic has caused substantial revenue losses and a global recession that will have a lasting impact on the healthcare industry.
T he pandemic has caused substantial revenue losses and a global recession that will have a lasting impact on the healthcare industry. However, hospitals, practices and health systems can take proactive measures to mitigate the effects and build a more robust medical billing practice. This article discusses some of the burning questions around the COVID-19 outbreak and the key Revenue cycle strategies to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic.
Reopening healthcare and sustaining medical billing processes are among the key priorities for healthcare organizations emerging from the global pandemic. A report from Strata Decision Technology indicates that inpatient procedures were at an all-time low of up to 99% during the pandemic’s early phases.
Reaffirming trust and confidence in patients—in reopening healthcare services and ensuring health capacity, safety measures and necessary supplies are among the key measures that will generate revenues during and post the COVID-19 scenario. Also, healthcare leaders need to place a significant focus on rebuilding their financial capacity post the COVID-19 crisis.
According to a healthcare practice leader, the core message is to play defense and focus on sustaining the business. In due course, healthcare organizations can begin to look for new opportunities. This perspective makes much sense, primarily as the pandemic has led to recession as predicted.
Healthcare providers need to overcome these challenges by rethinking their financial plans to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on revenues. Alternatively, telemedicine solutions can increase patient volumes, improve patient experience and satisfaction, and ultimately drive up revenues.
Telehealth adoption is one of the most significant evolution in healthcare due to the pandemic. Over a whopping 9 million beneficiaries have received telemedicine services during the first few months of COVID-19, according to a CMS report. This is a drastic change with a weekly increase from 13,000 visits before pandemic to a staggering 1.7 million mid-march through mid-June.
Telemedicine solutions have been a game-changer for hospitals and practices facing reduced patient volumes and revenues resultantly. But with practices reopening services—post reduced COVID-19 instances in certain regions, there is a sudden spike in in-person volumes—arising questions on Telemedicine solutions post COVID-19: Will telemedicine services just serve as an emergency platform? However, according to industry experts, it will not.
Healthcare practices and hospitals realize the benefits of telehealth solutions and prefer to continue to leverage the platform as we emerge from the COVID-19 situation. Telemedicine solutions have not become just an emergency tool but plays a significant part in accelerating health capacity post the pandemic.
COVID-19 has led to a colossal recession—fostering challenges with patient communication. This recession could drastically affect health insurance coverage, according to an Urban Institute report. The report predicts that over 2.9 million beneficiaries could become uninsured by the year-end due to job losses created by the pandemic. Additionally, millions more could stop availing employer-sponsored insurance coverage. This paradigm shift in the insurance coverage would lead to significant changes in payer billing tactics and payer mix.
The surging demand for high-deductible health plans has led care providers to shift their focus towards self-pay methods. However, the COVID-19 scenario encourages healthcare organizations to adopt self-pay patient billing methods to foster better payments. This means working hand-in-hand with your patient financing partner.
Besides the now clichéd concept of “new normal”, it is undeniable fact that the healthcare system and the revenue cycle trend in healthcare will not be the same as we emerge from the pandemic. COVID-19 has forever changed how care providers will deliver care and how they will collect the payments. However, the pandemic is about to bring forth the next generation of care—powered by hyper-connected, community-sourced and digitally-enabled healthcare system.
The concept of connected, engaged and digital care is not new. For instance, telemedicine adoption has enabled healthcare organizations to better respond to the pandemic’s impact compared to the previous years. However, healthcare providers need to shift gears from the “crisis” mode of adopting telehealth solutions to leverage telemedicine platforms to scale-up digitally-enabled care models.
Simultaneously, care providers need to expand their ambulatory and home care capabilities to optimize the benefits of “hospitals without walls”, in the wake of COVID-19. This digitally-enabled next-gen patient engagement will be one of the significant factors driving financial stability post-pandemic. However, new reimbursement policies and regulations will also play a key role in streamlining healthcare operations that meet the evolving consumerism in healthcare.
Providing superior patient care has been a goal for many providers over the last few years. Though the healthcare industry was lagging in adopting digital and innovative technologies to improvise care—the COVID-19 scenario has put tremendous pressure on healthcare organizations to adapt to the change.
The resurgence from the financial impact of COVID-19 could take a long time. Hence, healthcare leaders need to create new strategies—powered by patient-centric collections and telemedicine solutions to rising above the challenges of COVID-19.
To learn more about accelerating your revenue cycle strategies post the pandemic, talk to our team.
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