Best Practices for Improved Financials Post-COVID Part 1: Systems Optimization

The COVID pandemic became a public health crisis that presented challenges with growing repercussions. Practices had the task of pivoting their business and system operations to restore and strengthen revenues, adapt to the changing environment post-pandemic, and accelerate their growth.

In a webinar, medical billing experts from Coronis Health join for a panel discussion about best practices for improved financials post-COVID. Panelists also provide case studies on how practices have created smarter operations by leveraging technology, understanding coding and analytics, and reducing unnecessary fees. In this 3-part series, we share the highlights of that webinar and case studies to demonstrate the value of teaming up with experts in revenue cycle management.

The Critical Importance of System Optimization

The healthcare revenue cycle is very complex. There are many moving parts and different facets involved – all of which directly or indirectly impact your practice’s cash flow and revenue. 

One of the goals of Coronis is building a partnership that provides an analysis and review of existing operations and systems, with the goal of improving them and making them more efficient.

Optimizing Your Systems Case Studies

When you are reviewing your systems, you want to understand how you can optimize your systems best. But what does optimizing your system really mean? And how do you know you are actually optimizing your system? 

The first case study features a large pain group who loved their system’s EHR but was less than satisfied with the practice management system. 

We did a full task analysis of the onboarding process, identifying that the providers were very happy with the EHR, but on the back end, the administrators felt like they had no visibility on what was going on in the billing side. The staff didn’t understand where the charges were going or who was working on what. 

Despite the obvious issues, changing systems can be risky when it comes to cash flow and claims submission. How can we help these providers keep the EHR they love while achieving better visibility on the administrative side?

We took a look at their systems and moved them from their current practice management system to a new PM system. We did a system integration that pulled charges from their current EHR and sent them to their new practice management system. This enabled transparency while improving cash flow.

Results:

• Identified improvement on coding for ultrasounds due to client owning the ultrasounds (nice add-on)
• Increased overall monthly receipts by 10% because of improved coding and implemented audit for charge submission
• Provided access to Coronis Health BI tool to analyze denials to drive change
• Implemented click-to-pay patient statements to increase payment for patient receivables

Our second case study features a rural urgent care group that had an in-house biller for 20 years and was worried about outsourcing to a company that is not their own. For a group that belongs to a small, tight-knit community, they were also scared that these new individuals may not perform as well as those that have worked with them for 20 years. In addition, they had felt that since their system wasn’t broken, it did not need any fixing.

We wanted to understand their systems and their culture, because for us to build a partnership, we had to know what drove their business and what their patients’ expectations were. The practice was hit hard with COVID and almost had to close their doors because they weren’t able to keep the staffing on the front end to do patient registration. 

Within two months of working with them, we did a full task analysis on all their manual processes and created automation and efficiency to improve their revenue cycle. We utilized their specific software to help them with their manual tasks, and we implemented a verification tool that was already in the software to replace the manual task of verifying services.

Results:

• Helped the client keep their doors open to treat patients during the pandemic while taking care of the back office billing work
• Provided the client with resources to replace their retiring billing manager of 20+ years without causing a break/pause in the billing work
• Maintained the cash flow for the client during the initial transition period 
• Activated the verification tool that saved the the time required to go into different payer websites

Are you losing revenue due to inefficient processes? Let us help you optimize your systems and maximize your revenue cycle. Contact us today to learn more.

from
https://www.coronishealth.com/blog/best-practices-for-improved-financials-post-covid-part-1-systems-optimization/