Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare revenue cycle

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• Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare revenue cycle

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Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare revenue cycle
Revenue cycle management (RCM) is the backbone of
the healthcare industry as every healthcare
organization needs to develop successful
processes and policies for financial stability.
The healthcare RCM begins with patients
appointment to seek medical services while ends
on settlement of claims and payment collection.
The key stakeholders in this healthcare RCM are
Physicians, patients, and the payers. Physicians
and patients are directly part of the care
delivery process, while the payers participate in
it as the driving force of the process. Nowadays
outbreak of the novel coronavirus is posing many
challenges to the healthcare RCM such as billing
and coding, patients financial responsibilities
and allocation of resources. According to the
latest situation report from the World Health
Organization, there are over 109,500 confirmed
cases of COVID-19 across the globe and intensive
services needed to treat these COVID-19 patients
which are putting pressure on already-limited
resources. Stock prices of major for-profit
hospital are falling due to outbreak of corona.
Moreover, non-profit hospital systems, academic
medical centers, and physician practices are also
facing financial challenges from
COVID-19.However, healthcare providers are
rapidly implementing emergency preparedness
plans, managing large number of patients,
acquiring diagnostic tests and identifying and
protecting staff. Also, the government and payers
are helping these healthcare providers to
overcome challenges presented by COVID-19.
Medical Billing Services in Oregon
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Impacts of COVID-19 on Healthcare revenue cycle
Continuous functioning of billing office is
important to keeping hospitals and practices open
for infected individuals during an outbreak can
be a challenge for smaller organizations which
are having limited cash in hand to respond to
COVID-19 demands but Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) is helping healthcare
providers to handle the medical billing and
coding aspect of COVID-10 testing and treatment.
Moreover, CMS recently released guidance on
billing and reimbursement for treating COVID-19
in which agency reminded providers that Medicare
will pay for evaluation and management (E/M) and
other services furnished in a beneficiarys home
by a physician or non-physician practitioner.
Also, medicare will reimburse providers for many
non-face-to-face services used to assess and
manage a beneficiarys condition to achieve more
rapid coronavirus diagnostic testing capacity,
the FDA will allow certain clinical laboratories,
including some hospital labs, to use diagnostic
kits which is developed in-house to test their
patients for COVID-19. Patients financial
responsibility is again a challenge as several
reports concluded that patients are charged
heavily in medical bills after seeking care for
potential coronavirus symptoms. Healthcare
providers are already struggling to implement new
collection strategies during these emergency
situations while payers are acknowledging the
difficulties arising from patient financial
responsibility. However, Americas Health
Insurance Plans (AHIP) is implementing solutions
to lowering out-of-pocket costs for people
seeking testing for and treatment of COVID-19.
The outbreak of corona virus put heavy burden on
healthcare systems such as shortages of staff,
space and supplies. The allocation of resources
is extremely important for running operations
during rising demand for such resources for the
patients who needs more care.
Medical Billing Services in Oregon