Kick your revenue cycle into a new gear for the new year

Billions of dollars have been invested into electronic health records—and as we’ve said before, they’re great at what they do. But no system is perfect. In this blog post, you’ll find a rapid-fire Q&A session (and a brief demo!) between industry experts Andy De, Lillian Phelps, and Jennifer Rydd about how advanced analytics can work with EHRs to optimize revenue cycle.

Q: How does a lack of both depth and breadth in current EHR analytics impact healthcare providers from a financial and operational perspective? In other words, why should they care?

A: Many revenue cycle challenges are due to human error and inefficiencies. Technology promises to cut down on those issues, but it can only do so if it is used and applied correctly. Let’s consider front-end denials; that’s money going out the door before it ever gets in. We have the power to track inaccuracies easily and efficiently at registration before they create financial impact, but many organizations are not capitalizing on these capabilities. Ultimately, this can mean missed opportunities for revenue capture.

Q: What role does automation play in optimizing the revenue cycle?

A: Automation workflow predictive capabilities allow organizations to get all the detailed insights they need in a fraction of the time it takes to do so manually. With seamless, bidirectional analytics running at all times, you can quickly and easily quantify the quality of pre-service activities, minimize claim rework, reduce duplicative efforts, track individual performance, and lower your cost-to-collect.

Q: What can providers gain from layering powerful analytics on their EHRs?

A: There are so many, so we’ll stick to the key impact metrics. First, end users benefit from a tool that is shared by the whole team; it creates openness and contributes to more personalized improvement plans. Second, it moves outcomes measurement beyond task volume to task quality, and—in doing so—aligns revenue cycle performance more closely with organizational goals. Third, you can use advanced data capabilities to examine trends, find anomalies, and perform root cause analyses on any size problem. Finally, with all this visibility at your fingertips, provider organizations are able to conduct trainings, implement strategies, and develop interventions that augment patient access performance and protect financial stability.

Let’s take a closer look at the technology

Workforce Quality Insights is a new solution from MedeAnalytics that uses powerful analytics capabilities to generate end-to-end insights into how patient access activities are impacting the back-office outcomes. It sits on top of EHRs to augment the impact of data and fill the gaps in automation, ultimately empowering healthcare providers to get the most out of their technology investments.