Many of the companies offering outsourced business services of one type or another in the HME industry. As providers realise that they need to cast off some of the functions that are not essential business operations, that group is likely to expand.
Today’s growth oriented HME provider realises that they simply can’t do it all and still maintains focus on the essential functions of a patient-focused business. Letting go is hard, but smarter HME have reaped tremendous benefits from outsourcing the more administrative parts of their business operations.
The HME outsourcing areas of the operations such as:
- Billing and A/R management
- Intake
- Resupply
- Business analytics
Have the below keys for successful outsourcing:
- Learn how to use operational assessments to define business objectives and identify non-core business functions that are limiting your growth.
- See how to define outsourcing success in terms of operational gains, cost‐savings and
- Understand the requirements for a successful outsourcing partnership
What Processes Could You Outsource?
- Insurance Billing & Collections
- Patient Billing & Collections
- Resupply Patient Contact
What are the Reasons to Consider Outsourcing?
- Focus on your core competency of growing your business.
- Reduction in overhead of staff management, recruitment and on‐going training.
- Variable expense when compared to fixed expense from in‐house staffing.
- Improved processes through best practice utilization.
- Access to consistent informational reporting.
- Staff to accommodate variable demand.
- Billing expertise in new product categories.
- Flexibility in pricing with various fee structures to align fee structure to your business: Flat‐Fee Pricing, % of Collections, Hybrid.
Set a Proper Expectations
- What is a fair stabilisation period when outsourcing?
- What level of communication & reporting should I expect from an outsource vendor?
- Which type of improvement should I expect when outsourcing my Revenue Cycle Management
- What should I expect to gain from outsourcing patient contact, like resupply calls
- Should I be nervous to have an outsource vendor contacting my referral source?
How to Measure the Success of Outsourcing
⇒ Set clear and measurable targets
⇒ Monitor performance closely:
- Managing by the checkbook balance no longer works
- Ensure an open line of communication with your outsource partner
⇒ Develop reporting to clearly measure:
- Overall performance trend
- Exception identification & issue resolution
⇒ Meet regularly to review performance
Myths & Realities of Outsourcing
Lack of control over my billing department
- Hold billing partner accountable
- Set performance goals and monitor it regularly
Lack of visibility into what is happening to my AR
Depending on your platform and outsource partner, outsourced workflow should be completely transparent
They will only collect the low‐hanging fruit.
- Set expectations on informational reporting
- Compare against pre‐outsourcing performance
Key Business Benefits from Outsourcing
- Implement best practice billing processes
- Manage to your business key performance indicators
- Improve DSO and accounts receivable aging
- Improve collections to billing ratio
- Post payments and adjustments accurately
- Ensure compliance of filed claims through random monthly audits
- Minimize denials and write offs
Conclusions
Outsourcing can make sense from an overall business strategy. Do a cost of benefit analysis using the model discussed to consider options. Explore options in the marketplace and remember that cheaper is not always better.Doing all this can help ensure that the whole outsourcing process is satisfactory for you and profitable for your business.
