At the end of the day, a company is driven by revenue, even with something as essential as healthcare. If you have a healthcare brand or practice, your marketing strategy should take your revenue cycle management into consideration. Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the digital marketing strategies that should be included when you’re trying to hone the process.
Your patients’ health and wellness are always the priority, but you can’t discount the importance of their financial contribution to your brand. An effective revenue cycle management strategy, or how you manage the finances of your business, is a crucial aspect of your growth. Organic SEO can help you optimize that strategy as much as possible.
Read on to learn about what revenue cycle management is and how organic SEO can impact it. Then we’ll discuss how you can integrate organic SEO into the process.
The stages of revenue cycle management in healthcare
Revenue cycle management (RCM) is a process used exclusively by healthcare businesses to manage payments from patients. It’s used for billing, tracking and collecting finances for the provided services throughout every step of the patient journey.
The main stages of RCM are:
Pre-appointment stages
- Patient scheduling
- Insurance verification
During-appointment stages
- Coding and documentation
Post-appointment stages
- Billing submission
- Payment posting
- Accounts receivable follow-up
How organic SEO can impact the revenue cycle management in healthcare
Having an effective revenue cycle management strategy is essential for getting payments on time for financial stability, boosting operational efficiency and reducing confusion with your patients. While it may seem like ranking high on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs) doesn’t connect to your finances, there are more benefits to organic SEO for your RCM than you may think.
Organic SEO can help you attract patients in order to start the revenue cycle as well as guide them through the process to make sure you have everything you need from them.
The goal of SEO is to increase website traffic by putting your site in front of the eyes of people who would benefit from it. When there are more potential patients clicking on your website from SERPs, you’re increasing the likelihood that they will complete a conversion that starts your revenue cycle with them, like scheduling.
Organic SEO can also improve patient education and understanding of potential health concerns. When patients understand the value that you can provide them, they’ll be more likely to be timely with their payments because they won’t have many questions or disputes that delay them. Learning about your services from your website allows them to research your treatments and potential costs so they know what to expect.
Strategies for integrating organic SEO into revenue cycle management
When you’re trying to figure out how to incorporate organic SEO into your RCM, the right strategies can help guide you toward the results you’re looking for. Here are a few worth trying:
- Keyword research focused on the healthcare revenue cycle
Trying to get your site ranked high on SERPs means targeting the right keywords in your content, your URLs and your Google Business Profile. Use keyword research in tools like Semrush to see what people are searching for in relation to the healthcare revenue cycle. By centering your content around those keywords, you’re increasing your visibility to patients who are actually looking for the information you’re providing.
- Creating quality content to address patient needs
Quality content creation for organic SEO means providing value in your content that addresses a patient’s needs, concerns or questions that connect to your services. The algorithm wants to push sites that inform patients about relevant, engaging topics that include credible sources and are free of grammatical errors.
- Utilizing local SEO to attract patients
There are many services that people want to support in their community, and healthcare practices are one of them. Local SEO involves using targeted keywords in your content that focus on issues relevant to the areas you serve. By increasing visibility for local potential patients, you can build a supportive network that wants to help you succeed. That includes giving you revenue in an effective and timely manner.
Want to optimize your healthcare practice’s revenue cycle with organic SEO? BURG+CO. can help
Effective revenue cycle management is a staple for every healthcare brand’s success, and organic SEO can play a role in it. If you need guidance on how to use SEO to optimize the process, BURG+CO. is here to help.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
