A healthcare organization’s revenue cycle depends on many diverse elements. Promoting referrals, fostering patient retention and reducing expenses are all critical to healthcare organization success. Technology can ensure these elements support a successful revenue cycle, maximizing profits and helping you deliver top-tier patient care.

We’ll take a closer look at some of the most powerful healthcare revenue cycle technologies and how you can use them to your advantage.

What Is Revenue Cycle Technology in Healthcare?

Revenue cycle technology helps improve many aspects of a healthcare experience to support the organization’s bottom line. Nearly every element of a patient’s visit will affect their overall experience and influence their decision to return or refer someone else. Patient referrals and retention, driven by a positive experience, ultimately boost the practice’s revenue.

The patient financial experience is, clearly, critical to your revenue cycle, especially as patients get used to convenient payment options in other parts of their lives. A negative billing experience could prevent 93% of patients from returning to a healthcare provider, so prioritizing convenient and transparent solutions is vital.

The revenue cycle also depends on how the practice uses its resources — automating repetitive and administrative tasks can free up staff time and allow you to allocate your budget to more important initiatives.

Various revenue cycle technologies can boost earnings with tactics like:

• Streamlining time-consuming processes
• Reducing risks for noncompliance and its associated costs
• Harnessing data to improve strategies
• Limiting errors and inconsistencies in information
• Optimizing the patient experience and retention rates

The best ones for your practice will depend on your existing processes and concerns, but an end-to-end solution can simplify the entire payment cycle and provide a consistent, streamlined patient experience.

5 Types of Revenue Technology in Healthcare

Wide-ranging technology can support your revenue cycle and strengthen your bottom line.

1. Patient Intake Solutions

A speedy, accurate patient intake process supports your revenue cycle by reducing the chances of costly errors and freeing up your team’s time. It also facilitates a positive patient experience by limiting wait time and making registration more convenient.

An effective patient intake solution supports these outcomes with features like these.

• Digital forms and registration: Patients can spend less time in the office by filling out forms from home. These digital submissions also streamline check-in for your team, who no longer need to spend time transferring handwritten documents into your electronic health record. You can also boost accuracy by eliminating this error-prone process.
• Prepayment and prior balance options: Digital intake solutions offer patients multiple ways to pay for their appointment. Flexible payment options empower patients to pay their bills in full and on time. 
• Appointment reminders: Patients who receive timely reminders are more likely to keep their appointments, improving the intake process for your staff and patients. 

Integration with your EHR can further improve your intake solution’s value by sending information digitally. 

2. Mobile Pay

The easier it is for patients to pay bills on time, the more likely they will do so. Mobile pay is an excellent way to offer convenient payment solutions and reduce the chances of missed or delayed payments and bounced or lost checks. With more on-time payments, you also avoid having to make multiple reminder calls, which gives your team more time to spend on other tasks.

Here are some methods for offering mobile pay.

• One-click mobile payments: Offer patients an easy-to-navigate payment option from any device via an online payment portal optimized for mobile access.
• Text-to-pay: Send the link to your payment system directly to a patient’s phone with a text.
• Photo-capture bill payments: Allow patients to take a photo of their bill and quickly complete payments.
• QR-coded statements: Patients can also scan to pay through QR codes printed on bills and e-statements.
• Chat pay: You can even allow patients to pay when chatting with a team member about their bill.

Flexible choices like these create more convenience for patients while adding speed and efficiency to the entire payment cycle. With varied options, your patients can choose the method that works for them. You can go the extra mile by using technology to boost engagement, such as identifying how and when to contact them to maximize the chances of payment.

3. Insurance Verification

Verifying eligibility can help patients and providers confirm insurance coverage before the office renders services. This additional step helps reduce denials and unexpected patient costs, improving their satisfaction while reducing underpayments and collection concerns. Though you could do these steps manually, revenue cycle technology can eliminate those time-consuming tasks for a more streamlined process with fewer errors and reduced cost.

4. Payment Estimation

Payment estimates are another crucial pre-visit step. To meet the requirements of the No Surprises Act, you must give your patients a good-faith estimate of the charges they’ll incur. While these estimates help patients make more informed decisions and get peace of mind before receiving care, they create extra work for providers and organizations.

Revenue cycle technology can simplify payment estimation by automatically comparing the patient’s insurance benefits with care costs. These tools can quickly contrast many factors, such as varying rates and discounts. Replacing a manual process with a digital solution helps eliminate calculation errors and drastically speed up the process, reducing patient wait times and administrative workloads.

Digital payment estimations are also valuable for meeting your legal obligations and maintaining compliance records. Reduced risk, improved satisfaction and time savings can all support a successful healthcare revenue cycle.

5. Integrated Patient Payment Portals

Rounding out our list of revenue technology in healthcare is patient portals. With a comprehensive payment portal, your patients can access information and pay bills in one user-friendly and secure interface.

These tools support many different aspects of the healthcare revenue cycle.

• The patient experience: Easy access to saved cards, expense details and payment history gives patients more transparency and convenience in the billing process.
• Your team’s workload: Reduce administrative requirements by allowing patients to self-service their payments anytime, from any device — without a phone call to your office.
• Risk reduction: Compliant card handling helps ensure secure processing and limit your security risks.

Optimize Your Healthcare Revenue Cycle With Millennia Patient Payment Solution

Increasing revenue in healthcare calls for a comprehensive approach to practice management, and revenue cycle technology can help you optimize every step. Millennia offers an comprehensive solution for the healthcare revenue cycle, from intake tools and insurance verification to many mobile payment options.

Our end-to-end solution allows all providers — regardless of size or specialty — to streamline their payment processes, improve patient experiences and avoid errors or noncompliance. Contact a team member today to request a consultation and see how Millennia Patient Payment Solution can transform your revenue cycle.