Reply to the following using at least 175 words per reply. Reply to each post separately. Be constructive and professional in your reply. Be sure to use FULL APA references and in-text citations.
1. Underlying all financial management in healthcare organizations is the healthcare budget. Just as financial management involves several layers so does budget planning, development and management.
Guide to Healthcare and Hospital Budgeting (https://www.syntellis.com/guide-to-healthcare-and-hospital-budgeting) is a great resource on this subject.
Generally, the Keys to Success in Budgeting include the following.
Identifying programmatic/organizational objectives that are consistent with the strategic plan.
Determining not only the resources that are needed, but the resources that are available
Involving both staff members as well as Board members in the process in order to:
Improve the Quality of Information obtained, and
Increase the level of Commitment/Buy-in to the budget plan.
Documenting, Documenting, Documenting! It is imperative to keep written records of all your assumptions and calculations. These notes will prove invaluable later when managing the budget.
Customizing the process to fit the organization. Since all organizations are different the budget development process should be customized to fit the particular organization.
Distributing the final budget to all involved in the budget development process.
What Keys to Success might you suggest be added to the above general list (if any) to ensure sound budget planning in a healthcare organization?
2. Revenue cycle management is indeed critical to understand AND to manage in order to ensure maximum reimbursement and timely payment from third-party payers. Following below are the typical steps in the revenue cycle.
Revenue Cycle
1) Schedule patient and pre-register
2) Registration, financial counseling, collection of patient amounts
3) Service is provided to patient with utilization review and case management ongoing
4) Capture all charges and code for billing
5) Submit claim to payer ASAP
6) Review rejected claims, follow up for “clean claim”
7) Accept/reject payment, post to patient account
Of course, an error can occur during any point of this cycle. 3 Common Revenue Cycle Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (https://www.medirevv.com/blog/3-major-revenue-cycle-management-mistakes-we-all-make-and-how-to-avoid-them) might stimulate your thoughts about this.
What is the point at which you would expect most errors to occur? Why? How can that particular cog of the cycle be managed more intensely to prevent errors.
