What challenges can medical practices and facilities expect in 2023?

Healthcare facilities are likely to face multiple challenges in 2023 based on various studies and insights from the industry stakeholders. Similarly, medical practices of all sizes need to minimize the chances of risks to become financially successful and improve the health outcomes. In addition, patient experiences, ever-changing industry regulations, impact of COVID-19, and technological integrations collectively pose some challenges on healthcare facilities. Also, medical billing can mitigate the financial losses and help medical facilities enhance their revenue cycle. So, let’s examine some challenges healthcare facilities may face in 2023 and how practices can stay financially successful.

Financial Challenges

Due to the inflation and staffing problems, healthcare facilities will face challenges to maintain an efficient revenue cycle. In addition, one of the healthcare leaders according to data from Deloitte is of the view that hospitals can expect greater expenses in terms of labor costs and supplies. Also, the cuts in the Medicare reimbursement rates continue to cause financial problems for healthcare providers. So, there are greater chances of having a negative impact on practice revenues. Another important point to ponder is that healthcare systems cannot rely on the federal COVID-19 relief funds anymore. As a result, profitability of medical practices may reduce as the year 2023 passes on.

Mergers to Cut Costs

Some market experts share insights on how the mergers of healthcare facilities are likely to happen in the future. To cater to the problems of growing expenses and rising costs, health systems may affiliate with one another to get bargaining power with insurance companies. As a result, physician practices are likely to merge with larger practices or bigger health systems to stay afloat. Likewise, independent practices may find it challenging to run successfully on their own and likely get themselves affiliated with bigger healthcare facilities.

Hiring and Training Staff

Healthcare job openings reached all-time new heights of 9.2% in September 2022 according to statistics from Fitch Ratings. Similarly, this rising trend of new openings will make healthcare organizations focus on effective ways of hiring and retaining employees. Hiring medical billing services from third-party revenue cycle management companies can solve this problem. However, staffing will remain a problem due to rising costs and increasing demand of experienced healthcare staff. In addition, there are some organizations focusing on getting in touch with hiring teams who help find relevant staff in a short time.

Disagreements Between Payers and Providers

As the onslaught of potential recession is a problem everybody perceives, it may lead to limit the commercial business of insurance companies. In addition, bad economic conditions may lead to disputes between payers and providers regarding the amounts paid for services. As a result, the insurance companies may increase the premiums to manage the increased costs. Further, there are certain rules legislators bring in the future which issue fines for payers which do not comply with price transparency requirements.

Patient Engagement and Retention

The healthcare industry landscape is changing when it comes to insurance payers. In addition, patients are responsible for paying their portion which is becoming larger. As a result, healthcare facilities find it challenging to retain their patients by providing adequate customer service. So, greater competition is expected between healthcare providers to ensure the best patient experience to retain their patients. Making the communication between the practice staff and patients interactive with the help of texts and emails can help improve patient experience.

Cybersecurity

The problems like ransomware, data breaches and other cybersecurity threats are things facilities cannot ignore. In addition, practices should comply with the HIPAA regulations to keep the patient data safe. Also, it is essential to make sure that patient data is safe from external threats. As the decentralized systems are prone to these attacks, this trend may continue in this year. So, healthcare facilities need to manage this efficiently. Hiring medical billing from third-party vendors who possess the HITRUST certification can solve these problems.

Summing Up

It is imperative to cope with the challenges healthcare facilities are likely to face in 2023. In addition, effective management of medical practices with implementation of careful approaches according to the latest trends can lead to success. Similarly, healthcare facilities should keep an eye on the latest changes in the billing guidelines and emerging technologies which will shape the industry’s future. Also, medical practices of all sizes should focus on how to improve profitability in the medical billing challenging times and focus on patient care. Further, physicians should not lose out on revenue by submitting incorrect claims, delivering unsatisfactory services to patients, and not leveraging technology.