Together, We Navigate the Complexities in Your Revenue Cycle

In the latest View in 2- Healthcare NOW Radio Podcast episode with Beth Friedman, Acclara's Chief Growth Officer, Lauralea Tanner, shares invaluable insights and strategies to help healthcare organizations improve their margins and achieve financial sustainability.

Patient experience is more than just providing quality care. Patients want clear communication regarding their financial obligations. By implementing a financial discharge process, you can become a trusted financial partner for your patients. By providing patients with a one-page summary of financial clearance activities, offering options for payment, providing charity care/financial assistance, reviewing patient information for errors, and creating a post-care document, you can improve patient experience and prevent denials from insurers. Start by focusing on higher dollar visits and employing current staff for bedside visits.

Improving the patient’s experience and delivering high-quality care are critical components of healthcare delivery. While healthcare organizations dedicate significant resources to improving their processes and achieving better patient outcomes, not all hospitals have the same access to proven process improvement tools.

In March 2020, the nature of how Patient Financial Services (PFS) worked changed dramatically due to the COVID-19 emergency; revenue cycle departments sent most if not all, staff home. By early April 2020, more than 90% of staff worked remotely full-time.

Due to the performance in coding experienced at Heritage, In January of 2019, Acclara expanded our coding business footprint in the Los Angeles market by acquiring more business with the larger Providence St. Joseph healthcare organization. Acclara was tasked with an influx of inventory without adding additional full-time employees to handle the increase in A/R.

In a large healthcare organization, there are many moving, complex pieces and this results in competing priorities. As a CFO, revenue cycle management is key to overall business performance, but not top concern—clinical initiatives take priority. With that being said, outsourcing revenue cycle management isn’t throwing up a white flag. It’s actually the first big step toward gaining control and regaining clinical and financial focus of an organization.

Over time, Heritage faced a slew of staffing issues: vacation or personal leave requests, turnover, and the high cost of hiring and training new coders. Simultaneously, they were rapidly acquiring new provider groups, and needed a flexible number of coders trained across multiple specialties.

Fantastic service, excellent care, and knowledgeable staff made this 80-bed acute care facility a top-rated healthcare provider in this Midwest community. KSB’s commitment to “restore, maintain and enhance health” and their vision to “be the community’s first choice for health services” were met by our own promise, to help them maneuver complex payer dynamics and provide exceptional financial services to their patients.

Regional West made a much-needed decision to move toward a single EHR and patient accounting system throughout the health system, which led to expected and unexpected challenges. Cash pressures were real. Operational processes needed to be revamped. Employees were asked to learn new, complex system. The wind-down of the legacy system proved to be a competing priority. There was talk of restructuring, which brought uncertainty, leaving many important questions without clear answers.

Unlock the potential of your Patient Access team by building trust and relationships. Patient Access is critical in the healthcare industry and impacts the revenue cycle. Gain insights and strategies to overcome the challenges faced by Patient Access leaders, including understanding the current state of work, empowering staff, and mentoring future healthcare leaders. Learn how to prioritize customer service and create a positive patient experience that drives loyalty to your organization. Read the blog post now and take your Patient Access team to the next level.

As healthcare continues evolving, healthcare providers face increasingly complex billing and claims issues. One area that poses particular challenges is newborn claims and hospital billing. Here, we’ll explore some common problems related to newborn claims and hospital billing and provide tips on navigating them effectively.

Start optimizing your revenue cycle by enhancing department collaboration and coordination. By involving executives, physicians, and nurses, you can improve processes and perspectives and take control of your revenue cycle management. Refrain from allowing simple errors in the revenue cycle process to affect your bottom line or patient experience. Start optimizing your revenue cycle today!

As one of the top health systems in the state, Penn Medicine partnered with Acclara to run its commercial insurance follow up to increase efficiency and lower the cost to collect. Acclara also manages high-touch customer service operations to ensure the patient experience matches the Penn Medicine brand.

Trust in expected reimbursement is fundamental to a strong revenue cycle. Expected reimbursement is a critical but challenging competency for healthcare organizations, requiring constant attention and expertise to manage complex agreements with payors and changes to contracts, amendments, and payer policies. Discover how a team of experts specializing in revenue cycle and underpayments can help manage complex payor agreements, identify errors, and implement proactive solutions.