Last year was an important transitional year for healthcare. The COVID-19 federal health emergency ended, and along with it, government programs such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that helped mitigate the economic burden on hospitals and providers.
Is your healthcare organization taking advantage of innovative tech-driven solutions to achieve financial resilience? If not, you may be losing ground financially.
Welcome to the June 2023 issue of Cycle Up. Did you know that when it comes to revenue cycle management (RCM), many hospitals, health systems and physician groups fall for the trap of targeting low-cost vendor solutions to save money in the short run? Unfortunately, this strategy ends up costing exponentially more in the long run. Let’s take a look at why this is so.
Looking back on 2022, hospitals and health systems experienced one of the worst financial years on record, according to a report by Kaufman Hall.1 At the same time, payers reported record profits, according to Becker’s.2 When healthcare providers and payer revenues are in balance, both industries benefit, as do patients.
After nearly three years of dealing with the unrelenting impact of COVID-19, hospitals, health systems and physician groups across the nation are continuing to grapple with:
Staffing issues continue to challenge hospitals, health systems and physician groups.
Revenue cycle staffing shortages often mean accounts go untouched for too long. Over time, those accounts will become less collectible and eventually will be written off to bad debt.
Cost cutting without an effective strategy is not the answer. Internal staff are already facing burnout. Leveraging outsourcing to the right partner can ensure an organization’s financial health while freeing internal staff to focus on more complex revenue cycle management (RCM) needs.
COVID-19 has unleashed challenges unlike any that our healthcare system has experienced in at least 100 years. Hospitals and health systems are tasked with serving more patients than they are designed to handle. While our healthcare providers have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to ensuring their patients’ health along with the financial health of their organizations, all are overworked and many face burnout.
Throughout 2022, digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are key to recovering organizational financial health and mitigating pressure on internal staff.
COVID-19 continues to create massive challenges for healthcare, but with those challenges come opportunities to elevate the way we work. Going into 2022, digital tools – especially those that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) – will be a key component in driving hospital, health system and physician practice transformation. From how patient care is delivered across the continuum to revenue cycle solutions, digital technologies offer the speed, efficiency, scalability and accuracy to achieve financial health, resilience and patient care goals.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a raft of challenges that hospitals, health systems and physician groups across the country are facing at the start of this new year. The biggest priority will be effectively and efficiently managing the COVID-19 recovery phase financially and clinically.
