Revenue cycle leaders tout technology, process in streamlining workflows

Two health systems on Wednesday touted a slate of technology-driven initiatives in helping them improve their revenue cycle and their margins, too.

Baptist Health Medical Group in Louisville, Kentucky, unified its revenue cycle operations in a cloud-based platform while Texas Health Resources in Dallas-Fort Worth, focused on improving the patient experience and increased point of service collections by $7 million.

Baptist Health has 250 sites spread out over a 70-mile radius that have separate computer networks and staff with varying levels of expertise, according to Katherine Smith, director of revenue cycle, who spoke during the Revenue Cycle Solutions Summit in Boston.

[Also: 10 ways to achieve revenue cycle success]

Baptist Health decided to use a cloud-based clearinghouse as a unifying platform to increase operational efficiency, she said. The system allows employees to add custom edits, attach documents and work individual claims from a dashboard.

Visibility across the revenue cycle resulted in the ability to monitor activities and allow for cross training. It made it easier to problem solve and resolve common issues. And it created a unified tool for finance and accounting.

Along with greater transparency across the revenue cycle, Baptist Health gained a reduction in payment delays and the number of days in accounts receivable and improved collections.

The payment system was updated for patients to be able to use a point-of-service card swipe. Employees were able to enter cash and check receipts for tracking, and the system gained the capability to email a receipt, which was useful when taking payments over the phone.

"It did lead to an increase in cash collections," Smith said. 

[Also: Texas patient access chief touts data capture tech for improving their revenue cycle]

Patti Consolver, senior director patient access at Texas Health Resource, improved point-of-service collections by $7 million at the system's 16 hospitals after administrators met in 2013 to discuss strategies to improve the patient experience.

They started with the registration system.

"We preregister about 96 percent of patients," she said.

They then installed a communications management system that records and indexes calls and conversations with patients from scheduling, pre-registration, and face-to-face interactions.

In face-to-face visits the conversation is recorded using a microphone that attaches to the computer. The calls are then placed and tied to the medical record.

From this the health system learned that what patients report in surveys may be in conflict with actual interactions, Consolver said.

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For instance, one patient came in and asked the same questions at the front desk about being in the network as she did at the pre-registration call, necessitating a second call to the insurer.

Employees get scored on how well they perform using a script to collect payments.

"Sometimes the staff doesn't want to ask for money," Consolver said. "When they tweak the script, the money collected goes down a little bit."

The employees are given incentives for point of service collections and the patient experience, but Consolver has found one of the best motivators for employees is the ability to work from home if goals are met.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse