The critical part of managing the profitability and operation of a business is key performance indicators. However, some medical practices fail to optimize their performances. As they solely focus on the statistics that are reported to clients like low collection rates and A/R days.
Improved management and a change to an inward-facing performance mindset lead to better client retention. Though, the unique regulatory environment of the healthcare industry has arisen many challenges for practitioners to build a successful medical practice.
At this point, just like the other businesses, a medical facility also faces the same demands. You must raise the awareness to help understand your clients and deliver them outstanding services to enhance their experience.
You need to take care of your biggest assets ‘’Your Clients’’ if you want to build a thriving healthcare business. Monitoring your patient retention regularly is quite crucial. But it is necessary for the long-term success of your medical practice.
Internal performance measures are used to monitor and assess the internal operation of a medical facility. These are essentially measures of processes. Here are some of the strategies to monitor internal performance for increasing patient retention:
External vs. Internal KPIs:
External key performance indicators are those data points and statistics we share with customers. Between both external and internal KPIs there is a natural overlap.
However, internal KPIs are those benchmarks and goals we maintain on a particular business level. These are statistics and analytics that help you deliver the best services possible to your patients. As well as ensure that the internal operations of medical practice are running smoothly.
Moreover, constant monitoring of internal KPIs often helps you determine those issues. Which appears in external KPIs and affects the clients.
Some of the internal KPIs are following:
Days of Data Receipt For Submission Of Claims:
We highly suggest you begin monitoring this metric regularly if you don’t. The easiest way to identify the issues within the flow of claims in your medical facility is the days of data receipt to claim submission.
At this point, you can have a rough idea of how many claims should be generated daily and keep an eye on claims flow. You are a few days away from the beginning of the problem if there is a sudden drop in claims.
When a patient comes to visit a clinic, their primary concern is to get the primary healthcare services they require. The last thing they address is to navigate the complex procedures of billing that involve their insurance companies. They want the claims or payments easy, quick, and seamless. So, after leaving your office they can get back to their busy lives.
Furthermore, you can locate the issue easier if you check in with the administrative staff of various departments, such as IT. for coding for claims flow issues, file transfer, and front-end submission for clearinghouse issues can quickly help pinpoint the problem.
Staff Productivity Goals:
Efficient medical billing providers have daily confirmation of productivity targets. Because they take constant inventory of their claims workload. The most common standard metrics are:
- Amount or quantity of payments posted.
- The number of denial corrections per day.
- Claim generation volume.
When you monitor these internal key performance indicators against those KPIs your client faces, such as denial statistics, days in A/R, and clearinghouse rejections.
You become able to get ahead of these daunting issues and allow your medical facility to rectify them on time. So, you can prevent it from affecting the revenue flow of your clients.
Establish Great Financial Goals:
They are specific measurements used to plan the future performance goals of a healthcare organization and enhance business reputation. Using benchmarks and internal KPIs helps you to establish great financial goals for the future. Although, the result of this lack of establishment could have some very negative outcomes:
- Low practice value.
- Forgone revenue.
- Less than adequate staff performance.
- Low staff morale.
- Poor patient satisfaction
- Spiraling costs.
On the other hand, it provides you the following benefits, some of them are:
- Identifying ways you can become more competitive.
- Improves practice performance.
- Improved patient retention.
- Measures important aspects of your practice.
- One way to readily identify areas where you need to improve.
- Can motivate administrative staff, giving them measurable goals to achieve.
- See how your medical practice measures up to others in the market.
- Useful for evaluating employee performance.
- Can help you in planning.
Client Documentation:
Internal tracking of client satisfaction is vital to retain clients and maintain their service levels. This helps you to track those internal issues that in some way involve reimbursements. For instance, if claims were not created for a day or two and there are issues with file transfers.
You must note the supporting details that help you resolve these issues. Thereby, you can periodically use and review operational performance to further improve processes in the future.
In addition to this, if there is the smallest error due to inaccurate, missed information. It can cost you a huge revenue loss and you see disruptions in your cash flow. Moreover, it not only impacts your finances but your patients too.
You can start by making things easier for the patient by automating things a little bit more, just to streamline and create more efficiency.
When you track calls/meetings over time, client issues that recur can be proactively managed and identified. They are also beneficial in instances where clients have been given a piece of advice. And for whatever reason, they often failed to follow that advice, consequently leading to disrupted cash flow.
Key Takeaway:
The key to ongoing and successful relationships with your clients is establishing internal and external performance benchmarks. Therefore, consistent monitoring as described above can help you put you in the best position to retain clients and stay ahead of all operational issues.
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