Managing Increasing Patient Account Volume: 5 Ways Volume Breaks Things

Available for immediate download, 5 Ways Volumes Break Things – And How To Fight Back is a new whitepaper from Ontario Systems.

Subtitled “A Strategic Response to Increasing Patient Account Volume,” the whitepaper looks at five stressors on healthcare organizations’ revenue cycle management departments — and then gives actionable solutions that can turn those stressors into opportunities.

The whitepaper provides a fantastic introduction to Ontario Systems’s upcoming webinar on 19 September 2013. Registration is free (as is the whitepaper) — and promises to be informative and thought-provoking, while leaving attendees with the tools to begin finding and dealing with the stresses on increased patient account volume.

From the whitepaper:

Mergers & Acquisitions

Healthcare reform and a shift toward value-based payment have created a wave of M&A activity. In 2011, the number of independent community hospitals stood at 1,966 according to the American Hospital Association’s 2013 Annual Survey (To Remain Independent or Not, HFMA March 2013), down from 2,700 in 2010. This trend has not subsided in the past few years as independent hospitals and physician practices announce plans to affiliate or consolidate with other providers.

 

These initiatives can certainly bring about new efficiencies and synergies between hospitals and physician offices. But they can also bring disparate business office infrastructures together, sometimes presenting technical hurdles and information silos. When multiple operations merge into one entity,a much higher volume of information must be leveraged across that single system. The new entity’s policies and technology need to be able to handle those volume demands.

 

To address the issue, the business office needs an enterprise-wide response to accounts receivable management. A common AR system will enforce the steering committee’s business rules, apply automation to formerly manual processes, and drive exception-based workflow to each account representative’s desktop. Without those tools, exposure to higher days revenue outstanding becomes a risk, along with increased bad debt, and declining cash from patient payments.

 

If a merger or acquisition is on the horizon, start thinking now about how your team and the technology you use will handle the volume.

 

Download the whitepaper here.

Register for the webinar here.