Do you want to cut your health care costs? Unfortunately, health care costs continue to rise, while declining reimbursements have become a common phenomenon. Moreover, in this challenging era, where the ongoing pandemic has put an additional financial strain on health care practitioners.
Medical facilities witness an immense surge in their expenses. As providers have to invest a hefty amount in preparing their healthcare staff and practices in order to fight against viral diseases. From the past year, the demand for equipment and supplies such as personal protective equipment has increased. Providers have incurred costs to make sure that the infected patients get high-quality care. For this purpose, they have to establish isolation centers for the patients.
Cut Your Health Care Costs
Moreover, the excessive claim denials and constant revenue loss have worsened the financial situation. So, in order to ensure the smooth functioning of healthcare practices, medical care providers must pay special attention to managing their medical costs according to their revenue flow. One can’t deny the fact that maintaining a balance between costs and delivering exceptional care services to patients is fragile. But with the adoption of the right strategies, providers can easily find the areas. Where they can save a significant amount of money without compromising care quality.
Before moving ahead, it would be great to shed light on the fact that: health care practices that take control over their excessive operating costs have a greater chance of success over others_who aren’t serious about doing so. Are you looking for effective cost-reduction strategies? Then you are at the right place. This article articulates the more overlooked ways medical practice owners can reduce their expenses.
Reduce Unused Medications
One can’t deny the fact that almost every medical practice is overstock. Healthcare providers believe in maintaining more supplies than they actually need. Sometimes the use of a particular medicine is quite rare. The problem with the medicine is that it’s expensive and expires.
The rare use of medicine usually leads to a lot of waste. It has been observed that healthcare practitioners throw out nearly $10 billion worth of expired medicine each year. Just think for a moment, how much money you can save_while just reducing unused medications. No doubt for the large-scale healthcare practices that include multiple providers and hundreds if not thousands of patients_it could be immensely challenging to keep track of close-to-expiring medication.
However, the best thing you can do is post nearly expired supplies in a central location. This supply post will require daily upkeep from administrative staff and providers alike — as well as some training on how to best use it. It will significantly reduce unused, expired medication.
High Cost
For example, high-cost but low-use drugs typically expire first and also cost the most to replace. If you’re a part of a larger network, you can also exchange the medications (that are going to expire within two months), with other physicians or doctors. It will ultimately help you to prevent items from being thrown away. In addition to this, you should:
- Train your administrative staff to purchase the expensive but rarely use the medicine after a rough estimate of its need. Don’t try to keep the overstock of medicine.
- Encourage switching to generic medicine. That has the same ingredients and effects but costs less than branded drugs. Because according to medical experts, there are a lot of medicines available at affordable costs and have the same composition as compared to expensive ones.
- Using the less expensive medicine that treats the same condition, not only reduces your own financial burden as well as that of your patients as well.
Eliminate Paper Mailings, Directories & Reports
Did you know that the average office worker in the United States uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper annually? The majority of businesses spend approximately $120 billion every year on printed forms. Similarly, the medical practices that lack automation, spend millions of dollars every year on paper-related expenses.
For instance, keeping the skyrocketing health data on papers, preparing and submission of paper-based medical claims through the orthodox methods i.e. mailing. Additionally, spending money on printing out directories that could be hundreds of pages long_ might be the most overlooked aspect. Instead of printing hundreds of paper, you can also send everyone a digital PDF directory. Does it sound familiar to you? If so, then think seriously about eliminating the excessive use of paper and saving money.
According to the health revenue leaders, implementation of cutting edge technology to keep the records in the digital format. And more importantly, automating the medical billing systems i.e. from patients scheduling to the revenue collections from both patients and insurance companies_can actually make a huge difference in your saving in terms of both time and money.
For instance, you have to spend only a fixed amount on the integration of the practice management solutions or Electronic Health Records (EHR). As a result, you will get a maximum return on investment in terms of decreased paper-related costs and improved efficiency as well as the productivity of the entire revenue cycle management.
Control Overhead Expenses
Did you know hiring a proficient medical billing company can help you to save a considerable amount of money? Yes! It’s true. With the successful collaboration with the competent billing collection agency, providers can get rid of excessive administrative costs_associated with managing an in-house billing department.
For instance, hiring of billing staff, constant training, higher salaries, annual increments, paid holidays, promotion, health insurance benefits, office workspace, purchase and maintenance of the innovating billing software/hardware can result in a quick add up in your budget. Health care providers who are already struggling with the financial crisis, find it difficult to bear such expenses.
On the other hand, by partnering with a top-tier medical billing company, you can save time and money on all these factors. Billing companies charge a fixed amount and in return provide the assistance of the highly trained RCM staff. That takes the pain out of your billing process and elevates your profit margins.
Thus, in order to save your practice from financial loss and cut excessive medical costs, health care providers must focus on the above-mentioned aspects. Implementation of the right strategies at the right time can keep your revenue stream flowing without any disruption.