A common refrain among EMS leaders is that they want to grow their operations in 2024. More territories, more accounts, more calls, more EMT’s, more ambulances. Here's what I tell them: "STOP!"
I have seen this before. CEO's think bigger is better. Meanwhile, they forget that it only helps to grow if you can collect the additional revenue that was earned. Invariably, growing companies are leaving 5-10% on the table. And in a single-digit industry like EMS, leaving 5-10% uncollected means saying goodbye to your margins.
The root cause is that billing teams and processes do not scale with your growing operations. It requires a special investment. You need cash flow enablers, who will provide stable and predictable cash flow, no matter how grand your ambitions.
Most notably, during periods of high growth, insurance follow-up suffers. When additional volume is added, resources tend to flow upstream to handle the additional load. The first 80% of claims get paid, but the last 20% get neglected. Follow-up reps become billers, and managers get sucked down to the clerical level. Big-picture oversight goes out the window, as the RCM team struggles for survival.
The easy answer seems to be to just add more billing staff. But follow-up staff, in contrast, represents additional fixed cost with uncertain return. Moreover, new follow-up resources tend to get hired for one job description, and then the job description shifts to firefighting the issue of the day.
Unfortunately, 52-70% of claims older than 90 days get written off. Thus, claims go unactioned, timely-filing limits pass, and claims fall off the cliff. Sometimes these adverse results show up in KPI dashboards, but too often they go undetected.
Moreover, for perennially growing companies, even the fanciest dashboard cannot provide the requisite clarity. The problem is that the trend comparisons are based on how your ambulance service did last year. But do you know how your ambulance service SHOULD have performed last year? That knowledge only comes through benchmarking, a process that requires you to obtain data from dozens of other competitors.
In a word, all the benefits of growth are squandered, and oftentimes it would have been better if you hadn't try to grow at all.
All hope is not lost for growth. Book a strategy session with Isaac Sobel, Founder of RVNU EMS, to discuss if you qualify for the Claims AT RISK! Program. In the process, see how you rank against your industry competitors.
The RVNU EMS Claims AT RISK! Program helps provide stable and predictable cash flow by focusing on the 20% of claims that are oftentimes neglected. RVNU EMS becomes an extension of your team, working within your billing system so that you have full oversight and control. And RVNU EMS operates on a no win, no fee model. So you only have to pay if RVNU EMS is successful.
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