We’ve done it before. While we cope with financial and mental stress in an uncertain environment, revenue cycle leaders can draw upon the well of experience they have in adjusting to previous change in our dynamic healthcare industry. We’ve withstood several downturns in the economy. We’ve overcome vast changes in the payer market, reimbursement systems, coding systems and new technology. … Read More
Want some good news? Start with recovered cash today, and much more to come through automated processes and understanding of payer behavior
Despite the return of elective procedures at most hospitals and outpatient centers, not nearly enough patients have been showing up, perhaps fearful of what they perceive as high-risk environments. As a result, healthcare’s COVID-19-fed economic downturn has reached epidemic proportions, leaving organizations of all types and sizes scrambling to identify any new or accelerated sources of revenue. Instead of mass … Read More
While AI in healthcare matures, finding the right data is a starting point
In our fall newsletter, I asked, “Has AI really arrived in healthcare revenue cycle?” I shared that as a company born in a digital age, Salud recognizes the need to collect, store, and analyze clinical and financial data that can help predict outcomes and improve processes that affect cash. However, I questioned then and continue to question whether the industry … Read More
Salud connects the dots to help providers use the rev cycle to connect with patients as consumers across the enterprise
In our fall newsletter we talked about how self-pay can be turned in to a provider advantage through “consumerization.” We also discussed how Salud organizes around the patient-as-consumer via an organization-wide commitment to provide revenue cycle managed services that are “connective, predictive and prescriptive.” This consumerist outlook was bolstered by the work of two major organizations, the Healthcare Financial Management … Read More
Has AI really arrived in healthcare revenue cycle?
It’s safe to say that healthcare has come a long way from its low-tech past. Until just a few years ago, paper was still the foundation for most healthcare processes. We spent tens of billions of dollars, much of it government money, to adopt electronic medical records, for better or, in all too many cases, for worse. Interpersonal communications went … Read More
How self-pay can be turned into a provider advantage
Consumer? Consumerism? Consumerization? In the context of healthcare, all three evoke different perspectives (and emotions) regarding the healthcare continuum and the end-to-end patient experience. From a revenue cycle perspective, for what is known as the “patient financial experience,” the word we use is consumerization. This implies action, and lots of it; an ongoing effort universally acknowledged and urgently needed to … Read More
Cracking a tough nut in accounts receivable: Balance-due paid claims
I am speaking about balances due on paid claims. Among our clients, we see as much as 63% of accounts already have payments on them, and those with a balance due ranging from just a few dollars to several thousand dollars. The question is whether you have the savvy and the technology to work the accounts cost-effectively enough to make … Read More
Salud, automation and the future of claims resolution
Salud is beginning to use artificial intelligence to predict what kinds of claims will be denied, determine what solution would fix the problem and apply robotic process automation to quickly correct and/or dispute denied claims. Read the article.
Payer Collaboration Leaders Could Ease Payer, Provider Tensions
Though considerable tensions remain over narrow (and narrowing) provider networks and coverage and claims disputes, I see a continuingshift toward greater cooperation. With all of the financial pressures on both sides of the chasm, building bridges seems more fruitful than lobbing mortar shells. Read the article.
There’s Gold in the Zero Balance Review
After claims are closed, most hospitals and health systems, many with six figures’ worth of claims annually, will not review accounts that have been paid or adjusted off. Certainly, they will look at outright denials, especially if there is a pattern. But closed claims mostly have been the Dead Letter Offices of the healthcare system. And yet, there may be gold … Read More