How Can Effective Medical Referral Management Increase Revenue up to 65%?
Referral management solution has come as an asset to the healthcare industry to improve care coordination, increase referral volumes and revenue, reduce readmissions and improve outcomes. Secure messaging is a critical aspect of the healthcare industry. Referral Management Solution allows the providers to seamlessly communicate for exchanging patient related data and for improving patient care through a secure network.
Technology is ubiquitous. Hence today each and every business is engulfed by technology. Just like any other industry the future of healthcare is also changing dramatically due to the technological advancements. These technological developments have brought in remarkable changes and have transformed the entire healthcare industry for good.
The U.S. healthcare industry has been facing significant challenges in various areas like care coordination, readmissions rates, poor clinical outcomes, patient leakage, revenue leakage, referral leakage, unsatisfied patients, a secured network for sharing patient information, etc. These challenges affect the behavior of both providers’ and patients’ resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Lack of coordination of care is a major challenge across the healthcare system. And the underlying reason is evident that the health care providers do not have a solution they need to link and work together effectively to improve the overall population health. All these are clear indications for the urgent need to transform. This transformation should improve access to the required care at the right time and in the right care setting.
Here’s how you can increase your revenue
#1 Increase the number of referrals:
Increasing the number of referrals will help your practice grow. For this, it is crucial to build a strong referral network and strengthen your practice. Retaining your patients within your referral network will eventually not only grow your practice but also increase your patient base. More patients mean more revenue. It is important to adopt a top-notch solution to ensure you have the best practices at each stage throughout the referral process.
#2 Reduce patient leakage:
Studies say, referral leakage for a health system can range from 55 – 65% [GG1] and approximately 20 to 40 percent of patients who receive referrals never complete them because possibly they were never scheduled or they became no-shows due to bad appointment timings or for even various other reasons. [GG2] One of the ways to reduce patient leakage is to provide better care and improve patient health outcomes. Patient satisfaction is one of the most important aspects that can reduce leakage. The patients need to be educated about their health condition and should be engaged at regular intervals and if required they should be referred to the right specialists at the right time. And this requires a strong referral base and a right solution that can manage the complete referral network efficiently.
#3 Better and Secure Communication:
It is vital to have a secure communication network for the healthcare industry. Effective and secure communication will improve the patient-provider relationship and overall have a better outcome. Without proper communication the patients can miss out on the care they need while the referrers lose patients and revenue. According to recent statistics, an estimated 25 to 50 percent of referring providers do not know whether their patients have completed their referrals and 50 percent of referring and specialist providers do not communicate with each other.[GG3] So simplifying the patient-provider communication process will ultimately increase revenue for your practice and keep the referring physicians updated of the referral pipeline/loop.
#4 Increase patient satisfaction by providing better care:
For any successful healthcare practice, it is essential to maintain a positive relationship with both patients and providers. And trust is one of the most important elements in the patient-physician relationship. It is imperative for physicians to have the required visibility across the care continuum to help their patients continue to receive recommended care. Also, patients expect their physician to have a complete understanding of their health condition. A solution with a lot of beneficial features can help increase referral completion rates. A satisfied patient can be retained within the network.
#5 Manage referrals efficiently across channels:
Providers need to manage referrals efficiently across channels of communication and integrate these records and data with their existing EMR/EHR systems to have a completely integrated view of the patient data. A unified view will give a better understanding of the referral pipeline and can ensure that referrals don’t become no-shows.
As patients keeping move between different care settings, many of the ills in the system can be solved by technology. Beneficially a lot of providers are realizing the importance to improve handling referrals and patient transitions. This move from fee-for-service to value-based-service has the potential to increase the importance of collaboration between providers thus improving the overall operational efficiency and referral volume. It adds value to the patients by decreasing the appointment wait time and receiving care when required.
With the help of the unique HealthViewX Referral Management Solution, the healthcare providers can keep a trail of their patient referrals throughout the care continuum. It streamlines the processes so that the complete information of the patient is under one roof thus making it easy for the physician’s access. It gives physicians a better understanding of the patient’s medical requirements. Improved patient referral process means well-organized care. A streamlined patient referral process ensures to supply the specialists with complete patient information. Additional features like the automated notifications alert the referred providers of new referrals in real-time letting them to quickly follow-up/check with the patient. With all of these, it has become more important than ever for the health systems to improve the patient experience. The solution as a whole focuses on improving communication among providers and patients and minimizes the chance for network leakage and helps increase revenue.
Hence today it is vital for the healthcare industry to adopt new technologies to have a unified view of the patient information, a structured approach to documentation and most of all provide better care for the patients.
