Optimizing audit management critical to financial success
Audit management has always been a priority for healthcare providers, but recent healthcare reform legislation and the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program are shifting the focus to making the audit practice more efficient.
“Eight Steps to Optimal Audit Management,” scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, will address how all stakeholders on the audit management team, from patient financial services to CFOs, can drive efficiency in the process.
The main goal of healthcare reform legislation is to provide more affordable care, said co-presenter Dawn Crump, network director of compliance at St. Louis, Mo.-based SSM Health Care. But for healthcare to be affordable, she said, government has to find the funds to support this mandate and healthcare providers must become more efficient at providing healthcare services.
Audits are helping the federal government identify waste, fraud and abuse in the payment process, said Lori Brocato, co-presenter and a product manager for HealthPort. At the same time, she said, in order for healthcare providers to be successful, a more efficient billing system that eliminates overpayments and takebacks is vital.
Crump and Brocato will first identify methods that are likely already in place at many healthcare organizations. But the financial management and dashboard review step, they said, is often overlooked. Tracking financial management and dashboard review in a good, usable format is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Crump said audit management encompasses the whole process of how healthcare organizations justify and quantify how much the audits cost. She will illustrate how SSM Health Care addressed the audit management process and how this helped improve the healthcare system’s finances.
