| That said, there is another side of the healthcare sector that is far less romantic but no less important. Behind the scenes, administrators face a daily battle to manage the monumental financial costs involved in providing quality care. Healthcare is a multibillion-dollar sector, with hospitals and healthcare providers under increasing pressure to balance budgets2.
So we come to billing, which is the lifeblood of any healthcare practice. The ability to turn claims quickly and effectively into cash is essential but history tells us that medical billing is overwhelmingly slow-moving, complicated and labour-intensive. Coding is complex. Errors are common. Chasing payments is a recurring frustration.
Mistakes are also hugely expensive, with Medicare coming under fire this year for losing up to $3 billion due to billing errors3. Then there are 70% of medical providers saying that it takes at least a month to collect payments from patients4. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of hospitals and healthcare practices are searching for ways to improve their billing processes and many are finding the ideal solution in automation.
Medical billing automation is the use of digital tools and solutions to perform routine and repetitive tasks in the billing process and complete them automatically, more rapidly and with zero errors. The automation of medical billing has been proven to streamline the likes of financial form compliance, coding and payments to improve cash flow and improve experiences for patients, staff and suppliers.
Automation is playing a leading role in changing the health billing conversation for the better.
Reduction in FTE: a modern business catch cry is to ‘do more with less’ and automation makes that a reality in the health billing space. There are countless examples of hospitals and healthcare providers that have been able to significantly reduce their FTE headcount in billing after adopting automated processes6 and, more importantly, deploy those team members to other areas of the business. It is all about making best use of resources, while automated health billing can also provide hospitals and practices with data and analysis to help them better understand financial performance and decision-making. Automation can be achieved for 70% of all invoices processed by a hospital.
Improved cash flow and reduced DSO: a steady flow of cash is essential to any business but hospital administrators often find themselves hamstrung by manual billing systems that are slow and cumbersome. This especially has a negative impact on Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), the measure of the average number of days it takes to collect payment from patients, health funds or government departments. Reducing that figure even slightly can go a long way to improving the financial health of a hospital or health service and automation has been shown to lower DSO by up to 30%. Likewise, digital solutions and automated checking and reporting is a proactive and highly successful way to reduce health fund leakage.
Fewer outstanding debts: chasing payments is a fact of life for any billing team but an ad hoc approach is a recipe for disaster. Automated checks and flags can alert team members when unpaid bills are becoming a concern but, more significantly, pinpoint those in most urgent need of attention. For example, as opposed to facing a list of 100 unpaid bills, the solution can provide a list of the top 20 priorities based on factors such as the largest debts or longest period with payment. Automation is a fast-track to less outstanding debts and more money in one’s own account.
Automation is just one part of the medical billing solution. The best technology in the world can only deliver results if it is guided by the expert hands of people who know best how to deploy it. One size does not fit all so when it is time for a hospital or healthcare practice to use automation to boost its billing processes, they should work with a team that can pinpoint the concerns in their current systems and build a tailored solution specifically for their needs.
Robotic process automation technology has the power to transform any department or function. Learn three quick wins for organisations wanting to simplify and automate core business processes to achieve superior productivity.
1 . The unintended consequences of the angel and hero narrative - HealthTimes