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Civica Medical Billing and Collection’s Simon Brignall discusses how access to up-to-date financial information about your private practice can optimise cashflow, increase revenue and ensure that you make better informed decisions to grow your practice.
While many consultants find private practice hugely rewarding because of the freedom it offers to deliver care to patients in a manner of their choosing, they can also find it extremely challenging. Consultants need to deliver excellent clinical care while the practice team needs to manage new enquiries, patient communications, diaries, and treatment plans, while at the same time ensuring that the business side of the practice runs smoothly.
Unfortunately, many private practices suffer from lack of visibility on their billing activity and finances that often rely on outdated or incomplete information leading to problems with cash flow, lost revenue and a poor patient experience.
In this article, we will demonstrate how access to up-to-date reporting can revolutionise your practice finances and ensure you make better strategic decisions to drive success.
24/7 access to your practice data
One of the most common challenges we see when speaking to consultants is a lack of transparency around billing and financial performance. In many cases, there either is a lack of visibility around these key metrics, or the data is not current resulting in problems in the key revenue cycle management process such as delays in:
- Invoicing insurance shortfalls and excesses
- Chasing of outstanding payments
- Dispute resolution
These delays not only deliver a less than ideal patient experience but also lead to poor cashflow and in some instances loss of revenue.
At Civica Medical Billing and Collection, we partner with 2,500+ consultants, groups, clinics and hospitals across the UK. Our clients have access to our market leading ‘Dashboard’ reporting tool ensuring they have 24/7 visibility to an array of reports to analyse their practice data; which delivers all the reporting benefits of a practice management system for free.
Customisable reporting to support better decisions
Every practice is different. A single consultant will not always need the same information as a large group practice or clinic. Some practices want to review aged debt, revenue composition, payment reporting or cashflow by provider, patient payee type or specific location. That is why the ability to generate customisable reporting is so important.
Civica Medical Billing and Collection‘s Dashboard helps practices review performance and activity at both a summary and granular level. Our Dashboard not only shows a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the practice in an easy to digest format but also the ability to run a range of reports offering a full range of custom fields to analyse
- Invoices raised
- Payments received
- Patient activity
- Aged Debt
It supports practical questions, such as how much revenue is currently outstanding, which patients or insurers are slow to pay, what patient payee types or locations are driving revenue and your practice revenue composition. Accurate data turns medical billing from a reactive admin task into a practical management tool.
Built around the way your practice works
Civica Medical Billing and Collection’s Dashboard can replicate your practice/group/clinic structure within our software, allowing tiered access to be provided where required. This means individual consultants, secretaries, practice and finance managers can each access the right information for their role, whether the organisation is a single-consultant practice, a group, a clinic or a multi-site operation.
This flexibility becomes increasingly important as practices grow. Consultants may want to see only their own activity, while a practice manager or finance lead may need visibility across a wider group. A system that mirrors the structure of your practice helps improve control, protect sensitive information and support more efficient working across the whole organisation.
A better patient experience
Billing conversations can be difficult, particularly when a patient is unsure what has been paid by their insurer, what remains outstanding or why they have received an invoice for a shortfall or excess. These conversations become much easier when they are carried out in a timely fashion supported by a range of simple to use payment options that meet the needs of the modern private patient.
As Civica Medical Billing and Collection service manages the entire medical billing revenue cycle on behalf of the practice, we ensure that each link in the billing and credit control chain is managed effectively increasingly the likelihood of payment. Civica MBC has an average bad debt level of less than 0.5%, and in some instances, it is as low as 0.18%, which is often a 90% improvement on when this role is managed in-house.
Security that protects patient and financial data
Medical billing involves highly sensitive patient, clinical and financial information. It is therefore essential that any system used to manage this data is secure, controlled and compliant. Civica MBC’s secure platform has ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials accreditation, helping ensure that patient and financial data remains protected and GDPR-compliant.
Simpler tax and accountant reporting
Financial reporting is another area where accurate billing information is vital. At key points in the year, accountants need clear, reliable information about income, payments received and outstanding balances. If this information is incomplete, out of date or held across multiple spreadsheets and systems, preparing reports can become unnecessarily stressful and time-consuming.
Civica Medical Billing and Collection makes this easier by giving practices access to accurate, up-to-date tax reports for their accountant, supporting compliance and reporting requirements with less disruption. This is particularly important with the introduction of Making Tax Digital this year for sole traders requiring quarterly submissions and an annual confirmation statement. Our UK-based Dedicated Account Managers will also happily liaise with the accountant directly to provide this data.
Free to focus on patient care
By partnering with a medical billing company, the practice can prioritise what they do best the patients clinical journey.
At Civica Medical Billing and Collection, we have been supporting consultants, groups, clinics and hospitals with their medical billing for more than 35 years. Our service combines billing expertise, modern payment solutions, secure technology, 24/7 reporting capability and most importantly UK-based Dedicated Account Management to help private practices deliver an exceptional service to their patients.
Accurate, up-to-date information is at the heart of this. With Civica Medical Billing and Collection, practices can use this data to make well informed strategic decisions to grow the practice safe in the knowledge that the finances are being looked after by experts.
