Five revenue-boosting mantras to adopt in 2023 and beyond
Mantras (i.e., statements or slogans repeated frequently) can greatly aid in our ability to set and achieve professional goals, including 2023 goals for your revenue cycle management team. By repeating these mantras, posting them around your office, and including them in policies and procedures, you’ll reinforce the idea of staff empowerment. The goal? To create a more positive connection to revenue and make financial goals more achievable.
Why is a revenue cycle management mantra so helpful for today’s medical practices? First, a mantra can help revenue cycle management staff stay focused on what’s important so they don’t become distracted by all of the noise that can easily occur in a busy medical practice. The result? Better compliance. Second, a mantra can boost confidence and morale during a time when staff burnout is at an all-time high. In revenue cycle management, it’s easy to become discouraged by payer denials. Over time, staff may adopt an attitude of, ‘There’s no way to combat denials, so why even try?’ A mantra can help shift that paradigm.
Not sure how to create a revenue cycle management mantra? Ask yourself these questions:
What is your medical practice’s core mission? Your mantra should be something you and your staff believe in and support 100%.
What core beliefs helped your medical practice achieve revenue cycle management goals in the past? Ideally, you would leverage these beliefs in creating your mantra.
What has stood in the way of achieving your revenue cycle management goals in the past? Your revenue cycle management mantra should be an affirmation that’s consistent with the results you would like to see.
Consider the following five revenue cycle management mantras and decide whether they resonate with you:
1. ‘We strive for revenue integrity because it helps us provide high-quality patient care.’ This is a great mantra because it reminds revenue cycle management staff of the important work they do every day. Every dollar they bill and collect is money that the medical practice can reinvest into salaries, medical equipment, technology, and more. The result? Better patient care.
2. ‘When we strive for revenue integrity, we get paid what we deserve.’ This mantra helps generate excitement around not leaving money on the table. It can empower staff to focus on medical coding and billing compliance with the ultimate goal of payment accuracy.
3. ‘We can—and will—avoid healthcare payer denials.’ When it comes to healthcare payer denials, it can sometimes feel as though medical practices are ‘rowing upstream.’ For example, revenue cycle management staff may feel as though payers have all the data and thus all the power. To some degree, payers do have more data and power; however, that doesn’t mean medical practices are at a complete disadvantage. Medical practices can leverage internal audits and data analytics to understand and proactively address potential denials as well as unpaid and underpaid claims.
4. ‘There is always room for improvement.’ In some medical practices, it can be difficult to challenge the status quo. If an administrative process or workflow has been in place for a long time, it’s hard to take a risk and do something differently. For example, if you’ve always performed your billing in-house, it can be daunting to consider working with an outsource billing partner. Or if you’ve always sent patient statements via paper mail, it can feel overwhelming to consider sending them via email or text. Similarly, you may be uneasy about moving to direct deposit electronic funds transfer if you’ve always received paper checks. However, this mantra is a reminder that sometimes there may truly be a better, more efficient way.
5. ‘Every mistake is an opportunity for growth.’ This mantra is all about turning a negative into a positive. It’s about viewing coding denials and payer recoupments as opportunities to focus on billing and coding compliance. Being able to drill down into the root causes of denials is paramount.
Conclusion
Leveraging a mantra in your revenue cycle can work wonders not only in terms of boosting revenue but boosting staff morale as well. Take the time to ponder what mantra makes the most sense given your medical practice’s unique goals and aspirations. edgeMED can help you achieve these goals. Learn how edgeMED can help and be sure to check the Healthy Snacks blog for more expert insights, best practices and industry trends.
