Your revenue cycle is what keeps the lights on at your pediatric therapy clinic. You provide care, submit claims, and get paid. It’s a bit more complex than that, but those are the basics of the revenue model. And optimizing those steps are essential in order for your practice to thrive.
A pediatric therapy clinic needs a healthy cash flow in order to be sustainable. The revenue cycle affects nearly every area of a practice, from employee payroll to quality of care. Managing the revenue cycle may not be the most exciting part of running a clinic, but it serves as a foundation for everything you do. A well-managed revenue cycle will support a growing, thriving practice.
If you’re a private pediatric therapy clinic owner, you started your practice because you love helping and healing. Seeing a child’s life improve because of the work you do is fulfilling. And even if some days are stressful, you probably love providing care. But financial management? Maybe not so much.
The claims process can be a constant source of frustration for pediatric therapy clinics. If a claim is delayed or denied, the clinic won’t get paid in a timely manner — and may not get paid at all. Cash flow suffers, ultimately impacting the clinic’s success.
Most therapists are familiar with the 8-Minute Rule, but if you’d like a refresher (or want to make sure you understand the details), this article breaks down everything from common mistakes to mixed remainders.
Your passion is helping kids, and you can’t help anyone if you go out of business. Trouble with collections can cause serious cash flow issues down the line. Does your pediatric therapy clinic have this problem?
Should you outsource therapy billing or use clinic billing software to do it in-house?
I’ve yet to meet a pediatric therapist who is in it for the money. Pediatric therapists care deeply about the children they treat and would treat them at no charge if they could.
Unfortunately, copay and deductible collection is the key to your pediatric therapy cash flow. With the increase of high deductible plans since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, proper collection of copays and deductibles is more important than ever. If the patient doesn’t pay for care, you bear the financial burden.
If that isn’t reason enough, there could even be legal consquences for failing to collect.
I recently listened to a webinar that reminded me of something I already knew: getting paid for services provided to patients is not guaranteed. Most phone calls made to payers verifying coverage and benefits will start with a disclaimer to that effect.