The term revenue cycle management (RCM) refers to the financial process surrounding a healthcare appointment. RCM can also often be referred to as behavioral health or medical billing. No matter what name you give it, RCM takes more skills and knowledge to complete than you may think. Keep reading to learn about the steps in the revenue cycle and the benefits of outsourcing its management.

The Complete Revenue Cycle
How many steps does the revenue cycle have? The answer depends on who you ask. Many sources list about seven to nine different steps in the process. Here are nine medical billing steps to give you the full picture:

1. Charge Capture: The provider assigns their clinical services charges in a centralized system.
2. Coding: While the provider gives each service a charge, they can also match them to the proper ICD codes.
3. Pre-Registration: During their first contact with a client, the provider obtains basic clinical and financial information.
4. Registration: After pre-registration, the provider will get further information and the client’s permission to create a clinical record.
5. Claim Submission: Before requesting a payment from the client, the provider must submit a claim to the insurer using software or by contacting them.
6. Third-Party Follow-Up: If necessary, the provider will also get in touch with any third-party payers.
7. Utilization Review: The insurance company determines if the service received is covered under the plan and clinically/medically necessary.
8. Collections: Once the insurer reviews the claim, the provider can calculate the client’s bill and charge it to them.
9. Remittance Processing: After the client submits their payment, the provider reviews all aspects of the bill and accepts or rejects the payment.
   

The order of these steps can vary, but they all have an important role to play in behavioral health/medical billing. Making a mistake during one task can result in mistakes in further steps. Accuracy and efficiency are critical to successful RCM.

Benefits of Outsourced Revenue Cycle Management
While behavioral health/medical billing seems simple at first glance, it requires dedicated attention, resources and skills. Both small and large healthcare practices can have difficulty giving billing the care it needs. Outsourced billing services have the training and resources to complete RCM correctly and efficiently. An established RCM provider will look out for you by keeping records secure and finding ways to increase reimbursements. RCM services can complete the billing steps for you so you can focus on your clients.

Working With Orion’s Outsource Billing Service
Thanks to decades of experience, Orion Healthcare Technology’s outsourced billing team provides accurate and fast RCM services. We specialize in the behavioral health and addiction fields, so we understand how to bill for these unique services. Physicians and other general healthcare professionals can also take advantage of our services. If you request our outsource billing services, we only charge an affordable percentage fee based on your collected payments.

Our cost-effective solutions help healthcare professionals better serve their clients. If you would like to learn more about our services, contact us online today.

America’s opioid crisis places a severe burden on public health. However, early intervention can prevent abuse and addiction before they happen. Health professionals have many opportunities to identify abuse and address it before it worsens. Learn how to pinpoint potential opioid use disorders and save lives.

The Opioid Abuse Epidemic
Our country has an opioid crisis that affects everyone’s well-being. Between 1999 and 2016, the public dangers posed by opioid addiction skyrocketed. In 2016, fives times as many opioid-related overdose deaths occurred as in 1999. Over the course of nearly two decades, more than 630,000 people died from drug overdose. Now, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. We haven’t lost all hope, however. Health professionals like you can save patient lives with early detection.

Preventing Substance Abuse by Recognizing the Signs
Opioids change the brain chemistry of someone who uses them. They create imbalances in the pleasure-reward system that can result in a reliance on opioids to feel positive feelings. The longer that someone takes opioids, the more likely they are to build dependency. Withdrawal symptoms become more severe when a patient has to stop taking opioids after an extended time.

Many patients can handle the effects of opioids without developing an addiction. However, the nature of this drug makes it easy for dependence to escalate into abuse. Health professionals need to identify the risk of abuse happening before it turns into a dangerous condition.

Opioid Abuse Risk Factors
Certain patients have a higher chance of developing opioid abuse and addiction than others. These opioid abuse risk factors include:

• Past or current personal substance abuse
• Past or current family substance abuse
• Untreated mental illness
• Younger age (between 16 and 45 years of age)
• History of sexual abuse

Not all patients with these traits will abuse opioids or become addicted. However, they should have extra care and attention to ensure they have a positive treatment experience.

Anyone with a high risk of opioid use disorder benefits from early intervention. However, specific populations have a critical need for it, including:

• Patients who drive under the influence
• Pregnant patients
• Adolescents who could develop lifetime addictions

Using the Opioid Risk Tool for Abuse Prevention
The AccuCare EHR’s Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) uses a research-supported assessment to identify the risk of abuse in your patients. After you answer a few questions, the tool calculates a score indicating their likelihood of aberrant behaviors, which are actions that suggest abuse and addiction. AccuCare’s ORT can help you monitor at-risk patients and potentially save lives.

About the AccuCare EHR SystemWe developed AccuCare to assist behavioral health professionals in managing their practices. This online application lets you:

• Organize patient records
• Schedule appointments
• Conduct assessments
• Manage treatment plans
• Write progress notes
• Prescribe medications
• Bill co-pays and insurance
• And more

Our team adds regular free updates such as the ORT to help you serve your patients more effectively. To learn more about the AccuCare system, contact us today. Request a free software demo to test out AccuCare’s features yourself.

Accurate and efficient billing is crucial to running an effective behavioral health practice. But, you can have difficulty with revenue cycle management if you don’t have the resources. Outsourced medical and behavioral health billing can help these practices serve clients better.

Here are five ways your practice could benefit from outsourced revenue cycle management services.

1. Increased Accuracy and Compliance
As healthcare technology grows, compliance policies change to make room for it. If you don’t have someone to keep track of these updates, you have to take time away from serving clients. Since outsourced services specialize in billing, they already understand how to stay compliant. Their staff members also dedicate themselves to maintaining accuracy. Thanks to these factors, your clients receive accurate and compliant billing, and you have more time to help them.

2. Maximized Security and Privacy
You want to keep your clients’ personal information safe to follow HIPAA and protect them from harm. An established revenue cycle management provider will make their security policies transparent. As best practices for data safety evolve, so do their confidentiality measures. You and your patients’ information stays secure in a professional services’ hands.

3. Improved Efficiency
Outsourced behavioral health billing services understand how to process claims quickly and accurately. If you choose a service that trains your staff members, they can also help your team work faster. Companies that have direct relationships with insurance providers can improve efficiency even further. Since they don’t have to send their claims to a separate clearinghouse, your billing gets processed more quickly.

4. Reduced Costs and Increased Profits
The money invested in a quality billing service often increases a practice’s profits. You avoid spending money on the latest billing software, equipment and training. Improved accuracy and efficiency help you receive higher reimbursements from your claims, as well. With an expert handling your revenue cycle management, you can rest assured you’ll make the most out of your money.

5. Happier, Healthier Clients
We saved the most important benefit for last — client satisfaction. Outsourced medical billing allows you to achieve your goal of increasing client wellness. Letting a professional service process your claims gives you the time and resources you need to focus on the people you serve. It also reduces the stress put on your staff, making it easier for them to provide quality care.

Outsource Billing Services From Orion Healthcare Technology
Did you know that Orion Healthcare Technology offers outsourced behavioral health billing? While we specialize in behavioral health and addictions, we also serve medical practices. Our team members understand the best practices in the industry and aim to get you the highest reimbursements possible. We charge a percentage-based fee calculated from your collected payments. That means providers of any size have the chance to benefit from our billing services.

Would you like to learn more about revenue cycle management services from Orion? Visit our outsource billing services page or get in touch with us online. We also have a Frequently Asked Questions page that provides even more information.
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On Oct. 24, President Donald Trump signed The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This bipartisan bill aims to resolve the opioid crisis by increasing access to addiction treatment and promoting recovery. Learn more about this opioid epidemic bill and the importance of tracking addiction outcome measures in your practice.

About the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities ActThe SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act opioid legislation opens up new ways to fight opioid addiction for patients and researchers, including:

• Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT): The bill will make therapies like MAT more accessible to people with opioid use disorders. MAT involves the use of medicines like buprenorphine to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

• Allowing more patients with Medicaid to access treatment: Patients who rely on Medicaid now have more opportunities to get treatment for opioid use disorder.

• Increasing research funding: Medical researchers now have more resources to help them find solutions to the opioid crisis.

This bill also acknowledges that addiction is a disease. Confirming it as a medical condition helps reduce the stigma around addiction and reject the idea that it comes from a moral failing.

The Importance of Tracking Outcome Measures for Treatment EffectivenessBehavioral health professionals have a part to play in the fight against opioid addiction. Many of the underlying causes of opioid abuse involve mental health conditions, a history of substance abuse or trauma. Patients count on the behavioral health field to address these issues. With behavioral health at the forefront of addiction causes, professionals can track outcome measures to find aberrant behavior. AccuCare simplifies the process with the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT).

AccuCare’s Opioid Risk Tool (ORT)The ORT feature in our AccuCare online system allows you to detect a patient’s risk of opioid abuse with a simple questionnaire. After you enter the answers to questions about trauma, substance abuse history and mental health, ORT generates a score. This number indicates the patient’s risk of developing an opioid abuse disorder.

We based the ORT feature on a research-supported screening tool with more than 90 percent accuracy. Patients who receive a high score have a greater chance of performing aberrant behaviors that suggest opioid use. ORT acts as the start of a conversation that could save a patient’s life.

Contact Us Today
At Orion Healthcare Technology, we empower behavioral health professionals to improve patients’ well-being. To learn more about AccuCare and ORT, call us at 844-359-0540 or request a free demo.