In a recent report by HIMSS Healthcare IT News, five healthcare revenue cycle technology experts offer perspectives on best practices for optimizing revenue cycle management (RCM) technology. I had the opportunity to represent ZOLL^® Data Systems in this discussion about the importance of collaboration among CIOs, CFOs, and other healthcare leaders to ensure peak RCM performance and prevent revenue loss. Here are the key takeaways from the June article.

The Importance of Interoperability

Today’s revenue cycle professionals face a growing entanglement of government regulation and payer policies. Fortunately, innovation is providing solutions to eliminate manual processes and reduce the labor costs required to submit a clean claim and receive timely reimbursement.

From my perspective, the power of these tools is often difficult for provider organizations to harness, with the increasing interplay of billing software, clearinghouse integrations, EHRs, and add-on tools. A CIO must keep a keen eye on the true interoperability of technology solutions to realize maximum efficiencies and benefits. There are two essential strategies that can streamline workflow and improve reimbursement:

• Consider the overall impact of each software application and the feasibility of true integration

• Select a core solution as a foundational system that can be used to its maximum capability

Without true interoperability, a product may fall short of ROI projections and cause costly delays in both productivity and reimbursement. The cost of implementing future integrations and interoperability functions should be paramount when choosing the revenue cycle solution for your organization. Failure to select the right foundation will cause downstream consequences for years to come.

Healthcare Leaders Offer Best Practices

In addition to the importance of interoperability, here are several insights and best practices offered by other contributing experts.

Connect RCM and clinical workflows. As healthcare organizations evolve and shift, post-COVID-19, clinical and revenue cycle workflows need to be better connected. A best practice to consider involves taking a long-term view of revenue cycle products and solutions and optimizing the spend.

– Michael Ochs, chief technology officer at Experian Health

Conduct business-problem analysis. It is important to overinvest in business-problem analysis, user profiling, user stories, and use cases versus the how and the what. People remain the most important asset to optimize something as complex as the healthcare revenue cycle.

– Brian Robertson, founder and CEO of VisiQuate

Track remote revenue cycle workers. Another best practice is to have tools, modules, and applications within RCM technology to track and monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of remote teams.

– Geneva Schlabach, CEO of Vispa

Read More

Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. Read the full article here.

For more information about ZOLL AR Boost™ and our revenue optimization solutions, click here.