Eyeworld

72 | EYEWORLD | OCTOBER 2020 I NSIDE THE PRACTICE people to break down walls that were otherwise up. The perception of competition is vanishing; COVID eliminated barriers and forced people to work together," he said. As with pre-COVID-19 conditions, Dr. Williamson said younger eye surgeons seeking new positions need to build a permanent char- acter trait within themselves that respects those who came before in a practice. "The founding providers of the practices in operation today can quickly sniff out any personality who doesn't show respect for the time it took to build something," he said. "Vice versa, founding providers need to consider that not all young doctors are out for themselves or to take things away from the founders. It's fun- damental: Communicate well, align your goals, don't lie to your fellow providers, and work hard. Do those things and it'll generally work out for you, whether you're just starting out or have been in the game for decades." Dr. Schneider said it's more important these days for job seekers to focus on things that are knowable. Is it a location you want? Do you like the people? Is it a well-run practice? "You want to look at reimbursement num- bers and contracts, but it's hard to predict the future. Focus on those things and hopefully the rest will follow," he said. P roviding high quality care is crucial to any medical business, but it is an efficient revenue cycle management (RCM) process that keeps the lights on. RCM is the process of managing funds and collecting payments for care provided. Its essential components include: medical credentialing; eligibility veri- fications; medical coding optimization; charge capture and billing; claims review and submis- sions; denial management; accounts receivable follow-up; and patient collections. While some ophthalmic practices and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) choose to conduct this process internally, many that choose to outsource some or all of these RCM components have proven there can be many benefits to doing so. Still, despite their successes, there are sev- eral circulating myths about outsourcing RCM services, keeping medical businesses from look- ing seriously into options that could increase their revenue. It is time to debunk those myths. Myth #1: Outsourcing to an RCM firm is only for businesses that do not already have someone in house. This is not true. Outsourcing is one avenue to eliminate downtime when your employed RCM staff are on vacation, maternity leave, extended sick leave, gaps between hiring staff that leave, etc. If your internal RCM staff consists of one or two people, those extended leaves have major impacts on cash flow. In addition to being beneficial to practic- es looking to improve consistency of service, outsourcing RCM can help those interested in improving "quality of work." While internal teams are no doubt working hard, everyone tends to think that their own team is the best— and maybe they are. However, an outsourced RCM firm can show data on the results of several clients, enabling you to compare those results to the performance of your internal staff. If metrics of the RCM firm are quantifi- ably better, improved results mean more cash flow to outsource vs. keeping internal staff. Outsourcing to an RCM firm may also be helpful to practices or ASCs concerned with the most up-to-date RCM trends. An RCM firm tends to include more people with a wider range of specialties and RCM experiences than an internal staff, potentially making the firm more knowledgeable and better able to ward off issues facing businesses today. Myth #2: Outsourcing RCM is too expen- sive. On the contrary, RCM can actually be more cost effective, due to its potential to increase Five myths about outsourcing revenue cycle management About the authors Robert McCarville, MBA Managing Principal and Consultant Medical Consulting Group Springfield, Missouri Erin Malloy Principal and Consultant Medical Consulting Group Springfield, Missouri Tonya LaRue, MBA RCM and Accounting Consultant Medical Consulting Group Springfield, Missouri by Robert McCarville, MPA, Erin Malloy, and Tonya LaRue, MBA continued from page 71

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