Last year, on average, healthcare facilities saw their financial margins drop a dramatic 5% because of an inefficient revenue cycle, according to an Advisory Board study. The primary culprits were: underpayments, claim denials, and subpar contract negotiations with commercial payers.
Data and analytics are essential for evaluating the health of your revenue cycle, identifying where improvements are necessary, and finding opportunities to optimize every step of the way. However, most healthcare facilities do not take advantage of this pertinent information because their revenue cycle solution does not provide real-time reporting.
When institutions use multiple vendors for different aspects of revenue cycle management, it can be especially difficult for facility leaders to readily access essential data. Even in cases where facilities do have access to reports, they cannot be customized around their specific reporting and data needs.
“It’s not enough to run a report on outstanding accounts receivable (A/R) or total charges or total adjustments,” said Brandon Doss, MedTek Revenue Cycle Manager, “It’s important to have the ability to customize the reports and run them in real time, then use the data to answer the questions that are keeping you up at night – whether that’s determining what service lines are least profitable or whom you need to incentivize or change over.”
A facility without reporting capabilities can have hidden problems that could get progressively worse by going unnoticed. It’s important to generate a range of reports that include financial data, management information, and key performance indicators to evaluate if your team is meeting benchmarks.
Insights gained through extensive reporting can be extremely valuable when planning for facility growth initiatives or projecting the profitability of new services. Measuring financial health is crucial for strategy and planning. Key metrics like days in A/R, adjusted collection rate, and denial rate need to be closely tracked so that healthcare facilities have the flexibility to invest their money when and where it is needed most.
Reporting tools are available that allow healthcare facilities to have instant access to their data and the ability to pull customized reports that contain information they can use for financial planning, pinpointing growth opportunities, or cutting services that are not profitable. Medtek’s newest revenue cycle solution, Revenue Cycle Edge, provides an end-to-end solution for revenue cycle management and insight every step of the way.
If you’re looking to gain insights that will allow your facility to seize growth opportunities and plan for future projects, contact a MedTek representative today.