With the recent shift away from fee-for-service care and toward value-based care, healthcare providers are beginning to understand the benefits associated with implementing healthcare revenue cycle management solutions in their operations. Healthcare revenue cycle management oversees the financial processes involved with healthcare organizations such as registrations, filing and processing claims, collecting payments and analyzing the overall revenue growth. With the Quality Payment Program scheduled to take effect in 2017, healthcare providers need to implement strategic solutions to enhance their organizations’ communications, collections and patient engagement capabilities in order to stay competitive in the market. While contemplating the switch to a healthcare revenue cycle management solution, below are a few advantages to consider.
Investments In New Technologies = Long Term Success Stories
Hospitals and healthcare providers now have an increased focus on unifying the revenue cycle management processes within their organization. Over the last decade, the healthcare industry has been one of the slowest industries to adopt to healthcare innovation and technology; rendering the industry outdated when it comes to advanced technology, communication and appropriate response time. Challenges with Health and Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance may also impact the industry, making hospital facilities more cautious to upgrading new technologies. Conversely, there is an upside to modernizing the healthcare industry. A recent industry report revealed that the global revenue cycle management market is predicted to reach $7 billion by 2020 as a result of increased investments into healthcare IT. Healthcare providers are just beginning to learn the advantages associated with investing in new technologies, such as: increased revenue, less time and money spent on administrative tasks, and an improved patient experience.
Increasing Efficiency
Due to the nature of the healthcare industry, workflow, stability and security are amongst a few factors that have kept healthcare providers lagging in time management and productivity. Healthcare organizations will need to focus their attention on reducing administrative tasks that are time-consuming. A report issued by Black Book Market Research found that many healthcare providers are actively searching to replace resource-intensive medical billing processes with digital solutions that will reduce manual data entry error and time, further strengthening internal staff communications, recording processes and outbound healthcare communication with the patients. Healthcare revenue cycle management solutions can assist through automated processes, allowing medical providers and healthcare facilities the ability to increase the amount of relevant claims submitted to a facility and decrease the time spent organizing billing and collecting payments. Additionally, many digital solutions now provide a higher level of accuracy and security, continually update compliance regulations, monitor claims faster and reduce healthcare fraud.
Embracing An Analytical Mindset
Today, healthcare providers need to invest in solutions that offer analytical data to equip them with knowledgeable insight to compete with regional healthcare providers and medical facilities in the area. It’s equally important for healthcare organizations to capture and leverage data analytics and insights in order to properly train their staff and make real-time business decisions. When implemented correctly, healthcare executives will be able to comprehensively digest data and turn their findings into actionable hospital improvements.
The healthcare industry is in the process of technological evolution, and revenue cycle management solutions could be a key player in that evolution. Medical providers should be actively seeking technology solutions and platforms that can manage time and administrative tasks efficiently, resulting in a more streamlined process for the patient and a higher profit margin for the facility.
That’s really awesome that improved revenue cycle management not only leads to increased revenue, but also to an improved patient experience. To me, this would be the most helpful part because if patients have a better experience employees will too, and they’ll be more excited to come to work and do a good job. I’ll have to look further into revenue cycle management.