Driving dollars through data: An innovative way to improve self-debt collections
Recent industry trends indicate the challenge of self-pay collections within the revenue cycle management (RCM) space will continue to rise, driven primarily by the increasing number of consumers opting for high deductible health plans. Effective collections strategies require additional expertise to focus efforts where there is a higher return on investment. It’s time-consuming to chase…
The 5 provider strategies to improve profit margins
Improving financial performance and operating margins has become one of the most pressing concerns for health system CEOs. To meet future margin targets, leaders will have to bring a new level of focus, resources and structure to achieve deeper cost reductions on a recurring basis. At the same time, this is critical to ensuring that…
How predictive analytics and AI shed light on payer behavior
Providers and payers have become more collaborative as payment models evolve toward value. Still, payer-provider relationships can seem one-sided — decidedly in favor of the payer — as hospitals continue to face declining reimbursement and rising costs. The increase in denials is a great example, with rates skyrocketing by 20% over 5 years, according to…
Research summary: Study identifies health systems’ two biggest concerns — staffing and financial performance
HFMA, with sponsorship by Lifepoint, surveyed 100 healthcare respondents to better understand health systems’ concerns, including strategic priorities, staffing issues, improving the patient experience, partnerships, market expansion opportunities and co-location. Staffing and financial performance were the two greatest concerns for nearly all health systems. To learn more, download the key findings from the survey.
Stemming the outpatient profit squeeze with a revenue cycle workflow gap analysis
Hospital and health system outpatient, outreach and ancillary services are often confined to EHR systems to manage their billing. Designed for bigger-ticket, lower-volume claims, these systems lack specific front-end intelligence, system connectivity, and automation necessary to efficiently manage these departments’ unique billing need. Too often, the result is an unnecessarily high number of submission errors,…
4 opportunities to improve mid-cycle revenue operations
The quality of a hospital’s revenue cycle processes directly impacts the health of its bottom line. In an age of stagnant margins, hospitals should do all they can to improve revenue cycle efficiency. The mid-cycle—that critical phase between patient registration and claims submission — is a great place to start. Numerous challenges arise during this…
Denials Management Research Report
HFMA, with sponsorship from Waystar, surveyed 415 healthcare finance and revenue cycle executives to understand how denials are affecting their revenue cycle operations.
Out of the back office, into the spotlight: 5 skills revenue cycle leaders need
Healthcare has changed tremendously over the past decade. From increasingly complex payer requirements to growing federal and state regulations to a substantial change in the payer mix (patients are now the second largest payer (27%) behind the federal government (34%), which is mostly Medicare and Medicaid). Today’s revenue cycle is an entirely new animal. What…
Addressing the Rising Patient Payment Obligation: Impact and Strategies amid today’s challenging healthcare environment
In the Fall of 2021, CommerceHealthcare® sponsored a focused survey conducted by the Health Management Academy (HMA), an organization for executives from the nation’s top health systems and leading companies. The HMA survey involved both quantitative polling and in-depth telephone interviews to explore current issues in patient financial experience. This report combines those findings with…
7 KPIs providers should be tracking
Health systems and provider organizations are facing enormous challenges. In a recent poll, providers ranked five of their most pressing issues, which were staffing (58%), expenses (20%), revenue (17%), technology (2%), and other (2%), according to the MGMA. The poll also found that costs have been outpacing revenue for nine in ten respondents. In addition…