As skilled nursing communities across the country continue to face staffing shortages and thinning margins, it’s more important than ever for facilities to maximize their financial outcomes. The key to a better bottom line: SNFs must seek and lean on expert partners to help them improve reimbursement and boost cash flow.
Most notably, that means finding new approaches in both billing and A/R management and being open to outsourcing revenue cycle management.
MatrixCare, a leading software solutions provider for out-of-hospital care settings, and Quality Healthcare Resources, a trusted provider of skilled nursing RCM and financial services, are leading that charge through a new partnership.
MatrixCare is leveraging QHCR’s billing and collections expertise to help increase cash flow and efficiency for its clients, pairing its powerful technology with QHCR’s technical and operational revenue cycle management expertise.
“The MatrixCare – Quality Healthcare Resources collaboration is helping to ensure MatrixCare clients are fully and quickly reimbursed for the care they provide,” says Jack Fitzgibbons, CEO of Assembly Health, QHCR’s parent company. “Communities will see an even healthier bottom line when they combine MatrixCare’s system with QHCR’s processes and seasoned professionals.”
Both QHCR and MatrixCare know that SNFs outsourcing RCM has been uncommon compared to other types of health care providers, including physician groups. Yet communities are operating on razor-thin margins, not maximizing their current collections. With the evolution of MatrixCare technology and collaboration with QHCR, skilled nursing communities can boost collection rates up to 99%, which typically equates to a 3x return on investment.
That rate is significantly higher than the industry billing average, putting communities on the road to improved financial performance.
How QHCR helps SNFs boost revenue
QHCR already helps hundreds of facilities across the United States collect more for care delivered. They do this through work in two areas:
Expert billing services
- Billing and timely follow-up for all payers
- Cash posting with Medicaid and Medicare electronic remits
- Reporting for month-end census, billing and cash tied out
Thorough payer tracking
- Verification of Medicare A/B eligibility and available days
- Monitoring of insurance authorization process to help ensure authorizations are current
- Review of Medicaid applications to help prevent eligibility issues or penalties
“The days of billing a claim and trusting it’ll be paid are over,” says Aaron Hellman, Quality Healthcare Resources’ President. “The financial and regulatory landscape of skilled nursing has grown too complex. Our communities need strategic, always-on revenue cycle management support powered by the right people, processes, and technologies to continue providing best-in-class care.”
A complimentary A/R assessment
One key to a SNF getting its full reimbursement is its ability to identify methods to increase cash flow. Because SNFs can, understandably, struggle to know what data to look at and how to aggregate it, QHCR offers a free accounts receivable assessment, or A/R assessment, to all facilities. In those assessments, analysts study a SNF’s key financial data to gauge opportunities to improve collections and cash flow.
QHCR’s A/R assessment process is fast, easy, and thorough, and focuses on three steps:
- Data analysis. QHCR’s financial consultants will analyze a SNF’s data using their proprietary model, industry expertise, and compiled benchmarks to identify revenue cycle management issues and suggest improvements to increase cash flow.
- Custom report. Once QHCR completes its analyses, their team will walk the SNF through its custom report, including key metrics and observations.
- Actionable guidance. During that meeting, they will also provide context for each metric and share actionable guidance to improve the agency’s cash flow.
“We’re always looking for opportunities to help our customers thrive and optimize their revenue operations,” says Nick Knowlton, VP Business Development at ResMed, MatrixCare’s parent company. “This new collaboration will allow us to provide even more value to our facility-based clients through well-integrated revenue cycle management services. Our customers will now be able to further improve their collections, reduce their costs, and free up their time to focus on value-added activities.”
This article is sponsored by Assembly Health. Visit MatrixCare here to sign up for your A/R assessment. Results may vary.
