Following the massive number of COVID-19 infections caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, medical practices of all sizes are reviewing their rcm as more patients return.

You can expect more of your patients to return to your office for appointments that they canceled or procedures and tests that they postponed after years of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders.

It’s also a good idea to think about how to make the most of your revenue cycle management setup as you examine the flow of revenue.

After all, effective revenue cycle management is critical to your company’s long-term success. Whether you use a  independent RCM system at your facilities or outsource this critical task to a third-party company via cloud computing.

It’s important to keep up with new developments in the billing process. Paying attention to revenue cycle management trends in healthcare will help you get more out of your company.

Here are five major RCM trends to look out for in 2022:

1. Medical practices will prioritize the needs of patients

It will be prudent to adopt a patient-centric attitude in order to boost revenue flow in your organization, especially as you seek to restore the business to pre-pandemic levels.

Both in the exam room and online, automation makes it easier to focus more attention on each patient.

Beyond using technology to improve engagement, practices will digitize workflow processes, like booking appointments, processing payments, and handling billing to focus on patients.

2. Streamlining Payments for Patients and Employees

Patients, who are also referred to as “customers” in business terms, are generally loyal to their doctors and nurses to some extent.

They are, however, savvy digital information consumers who are used to paying bills and banking through online systems. Offering payment plans could be one way to assist patients and encourage their loyalty.

Unfortunately, patients have been skipping healthcare services due to economic pressures and a downturn.

The economy was caused by so many people losing their jobs during the peak of COVID-19.

According to Healthcare IT today, if you determine that patients can pay medical bills over time rather than all at once, you can offer them a plan in which they reimburse you for services step-by-step.

3. More Telehealth Options to Free Up Staff

If you haven’t yet implemented a telehealth system for your patients, you should reconsider this type of software and technology.

According to a recent report from Access Healthcare, telehealth is a $250 billion industry that grew 38 times during the coronavirus pandemic.

People wanted to avoid situations where COVID could be spread from person to person, so virtual meetings became popular.

Offering patients telehealth options could mean the difference between appointments being canceled and appointments being kept. And this means that your revenue cycle will improve in the future.

4. Analytics and other data tools will become more prominent.

As more practices turn to analytics to get more value out of the data they collect on each patient, you can expect your team to use software that predicts patient behavior.

Such as tracking patterns to see who is paying their bills late. One of the most important trends in healthcare revenue cycle management to keep an eye on is analytics.

Analytics can also help you spot employee mistakes and determine which claims are more likely to be denied.

5. Cooperative Machine Learning Portals for Payers

Artificial intelligence, also known as machine learning, is gaining traction in a variety of industries, including healthcare.

Access Healthcare, for example, stated that automated payment posting and the ability to obtain automated status improves denial management.

A payer portal encourages payers to automate as well.

Your practice can access this fast-moving data from any location using a tablet, smartphone, or laptop.

If medical organizations want to stay competitive in the healthcare industry.

They must use the most up-to-date software and computer technology.

Those who keep an eye on healthcare revenue cycle consulting management will take steps to install modern RCM software at their facilities in order to accelerate patient payments.

Anyone keeping up with rcm trends knows that having current software will be critical to their company’s success.