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6 Reasons to Outsource Patient Revenue Cycle Functions

01 5 Reasons To Outsource Nonclinical Functions In Healthcare

As part of the healthcare community, you’ve likely dealt with your fair share of administrative headaches — billing errors, cumbersome patient portals and overdue payments. Managing patient payments can be time-consuming, resource-intensive and frustrating for staff and patients. Yet, these challenges are common across the medical sector.

What if there was a better way to manage the chaos? Outsourcing patient payments is the answer. 

Globally, the hospital outsourcing market is projected to exceed about $1,091.52 billion by 2034 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11%. Medical facilities like hospitals and physician offices can see great monetary value in delegating their revenue cycle and administrative tasks to a third-party vendor. 

What Is Patient Support Outsourcing?

Patient support outsourcing involves allocating specific tasks to a third-party vendor — particularly responsibilities on the administrative and non-clinical side. You can consult a specialized team to handle various administrative processes, such as:

  • Appointment reminder notifications
  • Patient inquiry response 
  • Medical billing and coding
  • IT processes
  • Insurance tasks
  • Payment collection
  • Patient portal design and integration

What Is Patient Payment Outsourcing?

Patient payment outsourcing is a specialized service under the broader umbrella of patient support outsourcing. Patient payment outsourcing focuses exclusively on managing the financial interactions between a practice and its patients, including sending bills, handling follow-ups and offering payment options — all managed by an external provider. By outsourcing patient payment management, healthcare practices can significantly reduce their administrative workload and improve revenue collection while enhancing the patient experience. 

6 Benefits of Outsourcing Patient Billing

Outsourcing patient billing to a specialized partner has several advantages — from strengthening your company’s balance sheets to improving overall productivity. 

1. Competitive Edge

In the fast-moving and competitive healthcare industry, delivering excellent patient care is only part of the equation. Medical practices also need efficient operations and reliable revenue streams to stay ahead. That’s where outsourcing non-clinical tasks like patient billing offers a distinct advantage.

By partnering with specialized vendors, practices can offer patients a smoother, more transparent financial experience, which builds trust and encourages repeat visits. These partners bring expertise and proven systems that often lead to faster payments, fewer billing errors and better overall patient satisfaction. 

Outsourcing patient payments also levels the playing field for newer or smaller practices. It unlocks in-house capabilities that might be out of reach due to staffing or budget constraints, such as advanced billing technology and dedicated support teams. Plus, since you’re not limited to local vendors, you can choose the best-fit partner no matter where they’re based. 

2. Increased Revenue

You’d be surprised at the return on investment outsourcing can help you achieve. For example, by outsourcing patient revenue collection, you can see a significant increase in self-pay revenue.

Patient billing vendors use advanced technology, analytics and procedures to maximize business profits and patient experience. Outsourcing non-clinical tasks related to patient financial responsibility can yield considerable cost savings by:

  • Streamlining insurance verification pre-visit
  • Ensuring accurate patient payment estimates
  • Increasing on-time payments

Healthcare organizations can reduce spending on processes like billing, payment and IT by partnering with highly skilled vendors. By saving money in these areas, they can focus on what matters most — improving their medical services and generating cash flow on the clinical side of the coin.

Outsourcing can also save out-of-pocket costs associated with:

  • HR staff recruitment, replacement and training programs
  • Productivity errors, lapses and downtime
  • Integrating, upgrading and maintaining technology systems

Outsourcing relieves you of this responsibility by turning it over to the vendor. In turn, you save money and improve your capital investment strategy.

3. Enhanced Patient Experience

Outsourcing patient payments enhances the patient experience by introducing specialized expertise and dedicated resources focused solely on making billing clear, convenient and compassionate. Third-party payment partners use streamlined systems and patient-friendly tools to offer multiple communication channels — like text, email and phone —  ensuring patients receive timely, easy-to-understand updates.

They also provide flexible digital payment options and personalized support, making it easier for patients to manage their bills on their own terms. By taking this function off the provider’s plate and placing it with professionals who prioritize service, outsourcing ensures patients feel supported throughout the payment process — leading to higher satisfaction, reduced stress and a more positive overall healthcare experience. 

4. Improved Efficiency

Patient billing is a pivotal task in the medical industry. Healthcare providers must execute these processes quickly and accurately to ensure an efficient patient experience and consistent cash flow. Time is money, and inefficiencies in the billing process can be costly for medical organizations.

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Unfortunately, billing blunders are prevalent in the United States healthcare industry. About 80% of medical bills contain inaccuracies. These mistakes can cost healthcare organizations $935 million weekly.

Outsourcing patient support tasks saves time, money and resources. You can assign complex insurance verification and medical billing tasks to an experienced team of experts and streamlined technology. Outsourcing redirects your in-house staff’s energy toward core clinical activities. They can worry less about things like:

  • Billing errors due to inaccurate insurance information
  • Days in accounts receivable
  • Lost revenue from non-payment

As a result, your staff can administer high-quality care services and your operations become more efficient.

5. Better Technology

Software subscriptions can cost your business a pretty penny. When you purchase a plan for each system out of pocket, these expenses can quickly snowball. By outsourcing your administrative medical needs to a third party, you can access cutting-edge technologies and software features without breaking the bank. 

Millennia is committed to continuous innovation and taking the complexities of identifying and implementing new technology out of your hands. We handle the innovation process and you see the benefits of these advancements without the added expense of implementing each new feature and upgrade.

6. Scalability and Flexibility

As your organization grows or faces seasonal volume shifts, the services you receive from your outsourced patient billing partner can scale with you. Outsourcing patient billing gives you the flexibility to scale operations up or down as needed — without compromising performance. 

Whether you’re opening new locations, onboarding more providers or handling a surge of patient activity, a billing partner can adjust capacity easily to meet demand without hiring and training more staff. 

This flexibility helps maintain consistent cash flow and service levels during periods of growth or transition. Taking the pressure off your internal team allows your practice to stay more nimble, responsive and focused on patient care and strategic initiatives.

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Outsource Medical Billing With Millennia and Experience These Benefits for Yourself

If you’re looking to outsource patient payment management, our team at Millennia is ready to work with you! Our unified, end-to-end solution, supported by an experienced team of patient support specialists, can make tasks related to patient payments more manageable than ever. We serve a wide variety of healthcare organizations, including hospitals, ambulatory facilities, physician offices and medical groups.

We can help enhance your patients’ experience and your revenue stream. Our user-friendly package and analytics help facilitate digital payment options and personalized patient support.

Discover the value of healthcare outsourcing by partnering with Millennia. Learn more about the features of our comprehensive solution by requesting a consultation today! 

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