The Road To Financial Independence. Part V: Independence

Article by: Chris Stenglein, Chairman & CEO

Chris Stenglein currently serves as Aquina Health’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors.  He has been involved with the company since September 2012 and is responsible for the overall vision and strategic direction of the company. During his tenure, Stenglein has led Aquina Health to sustained growth and profitability, establishing Aquina Health as an industry leader in healthcare FinTech.

Medical professionals are okay acknowledging they did not go to medical school to learn how to practice business, but the harsh reality is that independent physicians must spend a great deal of time on their practices’ finances. The billing process, in essence, is the heart of any healthcare business. Without a healthy heart, i.e., the ability to receive quick and accurate reimbursements for treatment provided to patients, healthcare providers may be faced with closing their doors for business and losing sight of financial independence.

As I have mentioned, vision, visibility, and control are crucial to ensure financial success within any practice, especially when transitioning to value-based care. The costs of operating a practice continue to skyrocket, highlighting the importance of a healthy RCM. And although revenue may fluctuate, business expenses such as rent, salaries, equipment payments, insurance, etc. must still be paid regularly. Practices need to invest in a claims payment system to generate quick income to pay expenses and yield a profit.

The concept of “See patients today. Get paid tomorrow” seems simple, but practices are still waiting up to four weeks or more to be reimbursed on submitted claims. According to RevCycleIntelligence, when healthcare revenue cycle executives were asked what their top pain points were, their responses painted a picture of an industry struggling to adapt to today’s marketplace and frustrated with the performance of existing RCM systems. I have first-hand seen the stress that comes with managing this process. The revenue cycle model in healthcare is fundamentally broken, so why wait to achieve the financial independence your practice deserves?

Unleashing the power of technology to digitize payer-provider transmissions to a seamless and automated process is undisputedly increasing claim transparency. Therefore, if medical practices want to maximize incoming revenue and reduce claim payment lag, an all-inclusive platform improving the cash conversion cycle is pivotal. Why let the pulse driving your financial enterprise to die?

Via by Aquina is designed to increase efficiencies and assist in shortening the revenue cycle on any claims or payers, thus giving you a clear roadmap to your financial independence.

By accepting real-time payments through Via, practices can get back to executing their vision, keeping the priority on healthcare. Practices now can experience increased efficiency and revenue lift by increasing payment visibility and control, enabling them to redirect old-line resources away from cost center activities and toward revenue-generating ones.

The time is now to take care of the heart of your practice. Obtain the ability to customize which claims you choose to be advanced while possessing accurate oversight into pending claims. Ensure accurate information to retain maximum reimbursements. Systematize the back-end process, making sure your practice collects more today, enabling allocation of resources elsewhere tomorrow. It’s time to optimize performance and maximize efficiency, accelerating claims payments from weeks to real-time payments with autopay functionality, payer selection, and on-demand payment controls from Via.

The road to achieving financial independence is not out of reach, but a reality which your practice can attain. To find out if Via is right for you and your practice, please visit http://www.aquinahealth.com/via/ or contact sales@aquinahealth.com. If you or your medical practice is struggling with unpaid patient invoices/claims or needs a cash infusion to normalize cash flow, contact Aquina Health today to get started. Aquina can help guide you to the right financial solution that best fits your current business goal.