6 Ways Mid-Cycle Insight Improves Your Revenue

The healthcare industry is in the midst of a major transition from fee-for-service reimbursement to a value-based model. By 2020, fee-for-value reimbursement is expected to represent 83% of hospital revenue, up from just 14% in 2010.

Becker’s Hospital Review says that 86% of hospitals are already participating in some sort of value-based reimbursement program. Improving documentation and coding (in the middle of the revenue cycle) is key. Here are six ways insight into the mid-cycle can help you transition to value-based reimbursement.

#1: Encourage collaboration in CDI initiatives

With the transition to value-based reimbursement, clinical and financial stakeholders need to collaborate to improve the hospital’s financial viability. There is a clear link between coding and revenue, so you need to ensure you are working together to improve coding and documentation practices.

#2: Recognize the mid-cycle opportunity

The Advisory Board Company estimates that the average 250-bed hospital could gain as much as $11.3 million in revenue through improvements to the mid-cycle. With mid-cycle insight, you can gather information on coding and financial metrics to determine implications on your profitability.

#3: Engage physicians through data

Documentation improvements are crucial to improving profitability in the mid-cycle. Benchmarking data helps your physicians see how their documentation practices compare to others within the facility and across the country.

#4: Improve coding specificity

Use your data to identify what codes are being used, how frequently they are used, and how that frequency compares to organizations of a similar size. Your data can help you analyze your CMI, unspecified codes, compliance risk, underutilized secondary diagnosis codes, and more.

#5: Target physician and coder training

ICD-10 is a new world for physicians and coders. Their work has a direct impact on your financial viability. Without data analytics, it’s difficult to connect the dots between procedures, documentation, coding, and revenue. By giving physicians and coders the right information and training, you can ensure that every claim is coded correctly and that all complications and comorbidities are specified.

#6: Measure ongoing performance

To ensure your viability in a fee-for-value world, detailed change management processes must be in place. With ICD-10 in effect for just three months, it’s difficult to truly measure the impact of the change. It can be tough to stay on top of your physicians’ documentation. But regular reviews are critical. Integrating a performance management solution with data analytics helps you create specific action and accountability plans to drive meaningful change.

Learn more about how Revenue Integrity can help you seamlessly transition to value-based reimbursement with data analytics.

Sources:

AHD Acute Data, SK&A, NEJM, RWJ Foundation, HIMSS, Commonwealth Fund, Oliver Wyman

The New “Mid-Cycle,” Moving Past ICD-10 to Drive Lasting Revenue Optimization, The Advisory Board Company, 2014