4 Facilities See Revenue Climb To New Heights

By Karla Paris

2014 Revenue Cycle Solutions Awards were awarded to three hospitals and one health system for achievements ranging from adding $8.2 million in additional revenue to increasing point-of-service collections $6.1 million.

Recently, Health IT Outcomes noted how leveraging IT in healthcare through revenue cycle management is vital given potential loses in this low-margin business. On average, hospitals in the U.S. write off between 3 and 17 percent of their revenue due to payer denials. Many are hemorrhaging cash because of process inefficiencies, unbilled claims, coding errors, and poor communication with insurance companies.

During its 2014 Revenue Cycle Solutions Awards program, The Advisory Board Company – a global technology, research, and consulting firm partnering with 200,000 leaders in 4,500 organizations across health care and higher education – recognized four hospitals for their efforts in revenue cycle management advancement.

Baptist Beaumont Hospital, a 325-bed hospital in Beaumont, TX and a member of Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, had achieved only limited physician support for the hospital's Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) program before engaging The Advisory Board Company; the limited support constrained the program's effectiveness. Through a focused initiative, the hospital pinpointed the biggest opportunities to improve coding and documentation performance and conducted individualized education with the underperforming physicians. They also redesigned core CDI processes to increase efficiency and strengthen staff interactions with physicians. As a result of improved coding accuracy, the hospital was able to receive incremental payments totaling $8.2 million for delivered services in the first 12 months.

Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, a 628-bed hospital in Jackson, MS and a division of Baptist Health Systems, saw in its preparation for the rollout of the new ICD-10 coding system that it also had an opportunity to improve clinical documentation under the current ICD-9 coding system. The health system structured CDI training that covered both ICD-9 and ICD-10 at the same time; doing so, they were able to drive compliance and save significant staff time.

IU Health Goshen Hospital, a 122-bed hospital in Goshen, IN was facing a rise in uninsured admissions and patient out-of-pocket obligations. The hospital provided patients greater transparency into patient obligation at the onset of care, in part by implementing a presumptive charity policy, which reviewed every patient household for charity eligibility. The solution reduced bad debt, increased community benefit, and improved the efficiency of the patient billing process.

Springhill Medical Center, a 252-bed hospital in Mobile, AL had a large number of patients discharged without their final bill (DNFB) because the hospital struggled with evaluating patient payment responsibility to calculate accurate bill estimates. The facility launched an initiative across many departments to improve financial performance and link all of the revenue cycle components to one database. This allowed frontline staff to see patient responsibility, payment history, and charity eligibility at the onset of care. Springhill also enabled online bill payment to increase the efficiency of accounts receivable. Through these initiatives, Springhill increased point-of-service collection by a cumulative $6.1 million over the past four years and decreased DNFB from a high of 9.3 percent to an average of 5.73 percent.

SOURCE: PR Newswire