5 Key Strategies to Remediate Staffing Challenges in Behavioral Health RCM

Behavioral Health Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) RCM consists of the entire process a patient goes through, from scheduling an appointment to making final payment. RCM is essential for financial viability, operational efficiency and patient care delivery in behavioral health organizations. But the staffing issue is one of the biggest challenges in behavioral health RCM.

The results undoubtedly drive organizational performance on both a financial and business level, so staffing challenges can have wider-reaching consequences. According to a recent study, 80% of participants reported that their organization’s turnover of revenue cycle management staff is between eleven and forty percent. Such instability may expose practices to reduced throughput, higher billing and coding mistakes, as well as long accounts receivable.

In this article, we discuss five strategies that can help organizations confront some of the employee staffing challenges they may face in behavioral health RCM, establishing a competent workforce with respect to its size and stability.

Tip 1: Create detailed training programs

High turnover rates and skill gaps in behavioral health RCM departments are often best addressed with training programs. Such training programs should not only focus on the technical wording of billing and coding but also educate how behavioral health-specific RCM challenges significantly overlap with underlying psychiatric concerns.

 An effective training program should include the following elements: 

• Orientation training for new staff members: This establishes a prerequisite foundation before team members start, introducing the organization’s RCM processes and expectations.
• Technical skill training: e.g., billing software, coding systems, etc. specific to behavioral health RCM (Spectrum Knowledge Gap).
• Training specific to behavioral health: Look for training that focuses on the unique challenges and billing requirements in this sector.
• Ongoing Compliance Training: Train employees and keep them up to date on all the new regulations.
• Soft skills training: Improve the team’s communication and customer service abilities, which are especially important in dealing with patients as well as payers.
• Leadership development opportunities: A variety of ways to advance within the business.
• Continuous education and training can help organizations develop a confident, competent RCM workforce that commits fewer errors and, overall, forcibly performs better.

2. Cross-Training Initiative 

Cross-training programs can help develop a more flexible workforce so that organizations can better handle shifts in demand when it comes to workload peaks, absences or illness. In addition to developing skills, this approach also adds career development layers for employees, which could help fan the flames and improve job satisfaction and retention.

Here’s how to successfully put cross-training into place:

• Identify the most crucial areas for cross-training. Seek out departments or roles where extra help could make a big difference in productivity.
• Utilize mentorship: Create training pairs of some experienced staff members with those who are learning new skills; this can help to foster a sense of connection amongst colleagues and enable knowledge transfer.
• Rotate responsibilities—let them practice their new skills. Provide staff, the opportunity to apply what they have learned.
• Spotlight and reward staff who are able to grow their skills: This helps build a culture of continuous learning.
• Revise job descriptions based on the expanded skill set: This will formalize these new capabilities and be a great way to ensure that it propels more satisfaction at work.

 In this way, organizations can build their ability to address gaps in staffing and fluctuating workload by fostering a more multifaceted workforce—as well as the greater consistency of behavioral health RCM performance that follows.

Fashion a pool of staff and stencil contingency plans.

And staffing contingency planning—building an RCM pipeline—is step #1 to long-term sustainability. This includes building rapport with potential future employees and creating a clear track for where they might fit… in the organization.

Strategies for building a talent pipeline include the following:

Engaging with nearby colleges or trade schools: Develop internship opportunities to train students in behavioral health RCM processes and their potential role as future full-time employees.

Establishing an internal mentorship program: Train juniors for upper ranks by laying the path from lower to top within your organization.

Providing professional development opportunities: Assist the staff in obtaining certifications or higher degrees, which not only enhance their skills and knowledge but also foster a greater sense of commitment to the field.

Defining clear career progression helps to highlight the opportunity for growth within the organization and persuade employees towards long-term commitment.

This means not only a local training program but also the development of highly skilled RCM talent ready to graduate with a crystal-clear career. Grow opportunities within healthcare organizations, reducing turnover and ensuring steady supply.

4. Managing Staff Vacations and Absences

 Organizations face challenges in filling staffing gaps appropriately and maintaining smooth and effective behavioral health RCM operations when vacations and absences occur. This strategy emphasizes developing systems and processes that keep things moving when key personnel are out of the office.

Ways to cover it well:

• Scheduling Time Off: Implement a system in place to schedule vacation and other planned absences at times when your company can adequately manage coverage.
• Building a part-time or on-call workforce: We will use these flexible workers during peak times to cover staff absence and sickness, ensuring RCM remains operational every day of the year!
• Being flexible with remote work: Allowing staff to work remotely where it makes sense will be more convenient for you and your team, while also reducing the likelihood of unplanned absences.
• Build in strong documentation processes: Make sure that key information and processes are well documented so others can jump into the job if necessary.
• By anticipating staffing gaps, organizations can ensure steady RCM performance and minimize onslaughts to the remaining workforce in times of absence.

5. Use outsourcing whenever feasible.

For some organizations, outsourcing specific revenue cycle management functions to a specialized provider may offer a solution. Facilitating the adjustment of workload, access to expertise and eliminating development overheads (cost). However, be sure to seek potential partners that truly understand the nuances of behavioral health RCM/billing.

Benefits of Outsourcing Behavioral Health RCM

• Specialized Expertise: RCM outsourcing partners such as Velan have years of dedicated experience in behavioral health billing and coding maximizing performance.

• Cost-Effectiveness: Outsourcing is commonly cheaper than internal teams, especially as costs add up for training, software and continued education.

• Scalability: Outsourcing allows your RCM operations to scale up and down as per the organization’s requirements.

• Optimized Cash Flow: A reliable outsourcing company from x, such as a claims denied solution, will have a proven record in reducing claim denials and decreasing your time to be reimbursed; hence, you can take an edge on cash flow.

• Concentration on Core Competencies: Outsourcing RCM means that your staff will be free to devote their attention primarily towards areas such as patient care and other fundamental functions of the organization.

When considering outsourcing

 Evaluate current billing and collections performance—specifically identifying areas where specialized expertise may be able to drive meaningful improvement (for example, contractors at the Revenue Cycle Management company reducing days in A/R or denial rates).

Ideal partners have deep expertise in behavioral health billing. Make sure they are qualified to meet the unique needs of your field, including complex billing requirements and frequent regulatory changes.

Assess both the direct costs and potential increased efficiencies as savings: By outsourcing behavioral health RCM services, what will it cost compared to in-house going forward [long-term] evaluation? In many cases, over time you can save costs from improved efficiency, fewer errors and increased collections.

Check that potential partners offer full service. Ensure they are not just billing but also address your revenue cycle, including trends affecting payment collection and upstream solutions to revenue cycle challenges.

Consider ease of integration: Select a partner that is able to integrate its services within your office structure with little disruption.

For the smaller organizations or those that are already tumbling under high staffing difficulty, outsourcing may provide valuable support and expertise.

Meeting behavioral health RCM staffing challenges is essential for financial viability and operational efficiency. Through these five principles—training programs, cross-training initiatives, staffing pipeline and fills plan, and understanding outsourcing options—behavioral health organizations can build a strong RCM team that is skilled in multiple areas.

More than just specific strategies, developing a positive work environment is integral to overcoming staffing gaps. This may involve instituting recognition and reward programs, implementing flexible scheduling options if possible, encouraging open communication in an effort to directly confront the issue rather than ignore it, as well as organizing weekend out-goings (not clownish but all-in-good-clean-fun outings), especially for teams/projects that are struggling.

Keep in mind that combating staffing challenges is a fluid experience: you must continually evolve with the changing needs of your organization and the field at large. To that end, by concentrating on these areas and looking at an outsourced arrangement as a viable option, behavioral health organizations can markedly boost their RCM performance, providing better financial outcomes and translating into more patient care.

How Can Velan Help?

Velan provides billing and collections outsourcing, which can help meet staffing shortages in behavioral health RCM services. Here’s how Velan can help your organization:

• Scalable Model: With flexible and on-demand delivery options, you can expand your skilled workforce as needed.

• Turnkey Effectiveness: Our billing experts are extensions of your organization, versed in the competencies to get claims processed effectively within a contemporary fluid model that is undergoing continual regulatory changes.

• Regulatory Compliance: Velan provides skilled and trained billers who know the ins and outs of all present regulatory practices, making your behavioral health RCM services operations compliant.

• Simple Integration: Velan enables seamless, non-disruptive integration into your existing workplace environment.

• Transparency and Reporting: Velan adds another layer of transparency by providing you with concise reports that allow you to see through the very window where we can see operational issues causing billing delays and, consequently, delaying payment.

• Performance Tracking: At Velan, we help you track key performance metrics and identify your behavioral health RCM services processes that provide opportunities for automation.

• Staff Training Insights: Velan can also pinpoint the key areas for improvement where more assets would be useful in training your team to improve their skills and efficiency.

Engaging with Velan gives you access to more specialized behavioral health RCM services expertise and support, resolving the insufficient staffing issue while optimizing billing and collections for your organization.