Top Three Pain Points for Urgent Care Centers

Running an urgent care center is tough work. Between dealing with staffing issues and patient satisfaction, there is a lot to get done and only so much time to do it.

A recent survey done by the Urgent Care Association (UCA) asked members what worried them the most about running and leading a center. Survey results showed that issues related to billing were the main points of concern, specifically reimbursement issues, credentialing, and timely payment.

We wanted to touch on these three problem areas and give helpful tips to make sure you are on the right track!

Reimbursements

If you are like most urgent care managers, you are agonizing over reimbursements. Because payer rates can change so frequently, you may be leaving money on the table for services that you are charging for.

One way to be proactive about making sure you are getting reimbursed correctly is to make sure you are running reports at the end of the month. Typically, owners don’t start seeing issues until they start piling up. But by running month end reports, you will be able to catch problem areas and fix them.

Credentialing

Credentialing is a vital piece to making sure your center is running smoothly. Payers want to know that your provider has the qualifications and expertise needed to treat patients so that they can give you the appropriate reimbursement. Because this process is tedious and confusing, it can be difficult for both the upper management and the providers to navigate.

One action item you can do to ease your worries about credentialing is to have an in-house expert to help with the task. Between making sure you have all the requirements, managing denials, storing credentials and re-credentialing, having one person making sure that providers are credentialed by payers will be a huge help.

Timely Payment

Receiving timely payments from patients can be a hassle, especially if they have a habit of leaving their account unpaid for extended amounts of time. Delinquent accounts are bad for accounts receivable. It will drive up the days in A/R and make for a stressed out front office staff.

If you are looking to enhance your revenue cycle management, implementing PV’s pre-authorized patient payment is one simple step that could dramatically change how your center gets paid. Instead of waiting on payment once payers decide what portion of the visit the patient is responsible for, this credit card pre-authorization is the perfect feature for your front office staff to utilize to make sure your center gets paid.  

Here at Practice Velocity, we are dedicated to making sure our clients succeed. If you would like to hear more about our suite of solutions, schedule a call today!