Are you taking full advantage of your IT system to manage your revenue cycle? Are you reducing AR days and having business intelligence delivered on demand through your dashboard? Are you increasing staff productivity and improving cash collections per dollar? If not, you're like too many long-term care providers who don't use all the capabilities of their systems and miss out on these opportunities.

REDUCE AR DAYS

Many LTC providers have switched to electronic payment because it streamlines the receipt process. Staff simply import a file and the software matches the remittance with claims, reporting any discrepancies. Electronic payment eliminates the tasks of entering each line item and performing manual reconciliation. Improved efficiency here quickly translates to reduced AR days and dollars saved.

LTC billing gets more complicated every year. While the rules vary from payer to payer, your IT system "remembers" each payer's rules and submits bills according to those rules every time. The software remembers specifics, such as the bill format needed, whether a minimum hospital stay is required, billing criteria for hospital leaves and whether a plan pays for the day of discharge/admit.

Your software can also learn changes to regulations, such as new Medicare rules for the NPI, UB-04, therapy caps, no-pay and benefits exhaust billing. Providers can ease the transition to new rules by loading, learning and using their software updates as soon as they receive them so they don't lose time or money when implementation is mandatory.

Software can automate time-consuming tasks such as rebills and coordination of benefits. Should a rebill be necessary, the software will make any necessary retroactive changes. It can reverse original routine billing and ancillary charge entries and create new charges based on changed information. Your system can also bring the changes forward to update current totals.

To optimize secondary payer collection, be sure to enter complete payer information on each resident. The software uses that information to bill secondary payers automatically, prorating the charges for all of a resident's payers, producing claims automatically and passing on charges not covered by one payer to the next.

DASHBOARDS FOR INFORMATION

Management information is another key to reducing AR days. Dashboard software connects to billing/AR applications to pinpoint crucial data to meet the needs and preferences of individual executives. Administrators can set up their dashboards for the on-demand data most important to them. For example, census data is always crucial and can be broken down by payer, level of care, occupancy percentage, length of stay, admissions and discharges. Other possible business indicators are days of revenue outstanding, bed revenue, vacancy amount and cash receipts. 

Using data available in aging reports, dashboards can show you how much is billed to each payer for the month. Manipulate that data to determine, by payer, the percentage of dollars paid and how quickly. Compare those figures to last month and last year. Look at one site's status or compare and consolidate some or all sites. With this data in your dashboard you can forecast financial outcomes, and based on current resident mix, anticipate amounts billed and when to reasonably expect payment.

Dashboards give you data and easy-to-use tools to identify trends and make comparisons over time and across facilities.

INCREASE STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

When facility staff is using the billing system to its full potential, the IT census component improves communication for the entire facility. It makes sure everyone is on the same page when residents are admitted to the hospital, are on leave, or when they need a bed hold, transfer to a different unit, change status to a non-Medicare level or their physicians give staff their NPI. And it doesn't stop there: It uses the information for accurate and virtually automatic billing.

An integrated IT system means billing software "talks" to other applications to gather the information it needs, such as diagnoses, therapy minutes and RUGs.

LTC facilities that get the most out of their systems are usually those who put the most effort into learning how to harness their capabilities. They keep the system up-to-date and look for opportunities to learn more. That time is repaid well in terms of increased productivity and shorter learning curves for new employees.

IMPROVE CASH COLLECTIONS

When your billing software is running at full steam, you can quickly reduce the cost of collections because the need for collections is reduced-bills are paid faster when they are submitted accurately and timely.

When staff is armed with well-designed reports, it takes only one phone call to check on the status of all residents covered by that payer. Answers to family members' questions are more timely when staff can find them online. With collection notes online, the format and content are standardized, and time is no longer lost on indecipherable handwriting, and the information is instantly available to staff with security authorization.

REVENUE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

Most LTC facilities today employ an automated billing system. The most financially successful facilities fully use their systems to receive good return on their IT investment, have an efficient billing process, generate valuable management information and receive full reimbursement for services delivered.

Kim Allen is managing director of Keane Care, Redmond, Wash. Disclosure: Keane Care provides software to the LTC industry.