certification preparation

Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Cash flow is an important aspect of managing a practice and ensuring profitability. Revenue cycle management has focused on proper coding and billing to ensure reimbursement from third party payers including private insurance companies and the government. With shifts to higher co-pay and higher deductible insurance plans, the patient is expected to pay more upfront for their healthcare. This can present problems for the cash flow of a medical practice.

A practice manager is responsible for managing and ensuring adequate cash flow. Discuss the following:

• What is cash flow? Why is it important to a practice?
• What are the concerns for a practice in collecting payments from patients?
• What procedures and policies would need to be instituted in the front office to ensure not only clean claim submission to third party payers but also collection of patient payments?