Category Archives: Medical Billing for Addiction Treatment Centers

Successful Medical Billing for Addiction Treatment Centers

Rehab Billing Starts With Workflow Optimization

The easier your workflow stabilizes, the less resistance and less vulnerable a patient feels and the less stress a patient feels the more comfortable your staff feels and then they can focus on the actual task set at hand. Your patients benefit directly and indirectly to systematic approaches and organization, reinforcing confidence in your office as a whole. When physicians are more checks and balances driven, your staff experiences less bottlenecks, and or interruptions and realizes more productivity through out the day.

Workflow optimization relies heavily on staff, patient, executive and physician engagement. We already outlined documentation to help by inducing thought provoking subjects to increase and optimize workflows

Here are the big Five Q’S to ask to get your workflow in order:

1. Are drug rehab tasks and documentation for staff clearly defined and do they understand the objectives?

It is truly vital to have a system of checks and balances that everyone of your staff members follows and adheres to on a daily basis. When multiple staff members are responsible for multiple tasks and all of them just fill in the gaps for each other bottlenecks are created and workflow efficiencies decrease.

2. Double work without double output! Are tasks being done twice or three times or more?

Ever heard of measure twice cut once. Well that same principle applies even to the drug rehabilitation space. We find that a lot of times when we revamp workflows for clients that the common statement is made and that is “the patient already gave that information to the other doctor or nurse etc etc”. Isolating a clear client journey from assessment to alumni is key and breaking the cycle of addiction starts by breaking the facilities bad habits of redundancy and disorganized ways of treating clients. How hard is it to build a wireframe of your optimal client journey through your program and stick to it.

3. Schedule of events, do you follow?

Do, Delegate, Delete does your practice schedule, input data and check off that is the question if not we have built that training into our system and its free and ready for you to take advantage of.

4. Does your addiction treatment center have issues communicating with patients and staff?

“Can you hear me now?”  Without good communication it is game over for your workflow. This is actually a complete wireframe that we build in salesforce and we have the guides and experience to install that into any practice, in fact if your outsourcing your billing or if your handling your billing in house this is mandatory. Each person who is employed with your practice from physicians to the secretary should have access to your workflow forum to fill in communication error gaps. Don’t have a workflow forum don’t worry they are free and easy to set up.

5. Did staff get properly trained on the technology or systems operation?

Yes, drug rehab EHR’s CRM’s and EMR’s are great for workflow and communication and without them you will burn countless employee hours and money. However, you know what burns more time and money? Using them wrong or not using them to their full potential. Let us train you on and your team on best practices in any and all system administration.

Conclusion:

 

If your rehab is only getting $0.25 – $0.30 cents on reimbursements from what you are invoicing to the insurance companies you have a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed right away.  We can assist you in fixing this problem in a matter of a few weeks.  Call us now.