Could The C-Suite Benefit From Revenue Cycle Management Software?
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
As Big Data becomes even bigger in the healthcare space, high-level insight will become invaluable. Software developers have promising opportunity to open up the blind spots in revenue cycle for the management level, and a recent survey from Black Book (via Healthcare Finance News) shows us why, through a focus on CFO opinions on the subject.
Developers will do well to take note of the insights provided around facility demographics, and how CFOs view the relationship between revenue cycle success and their personal career security.
The Impact Of Facility Size
Small hospital CFOs were more likely than large to take into account legacy clinical systems when making revenue cycle management (RCM) decisions. Large hospital CFOs were much less concerned with finding RCM solutions that play well with their legacy systems, with 93 percent saying their existing clinical system would not have bearing on an RCM decision. That number was 47 percent for facilities under 250 beds.
Small-hospital CFOs are also more likely to feel uneasy around RCM decision making. According to the survey, 80 percent indicated they felt their job stability was threatened by RCM decisions, while 74 percent of large-facility CFOs were confident that RCM decisions would not affect their employment.
Additionally, a full 28 percent of small-facility CFOs felt they would lose their jobs in 2016 because of 2014 RCM decisions.
The difference in CFO outlook based on facility size even extends into profitability. In the world of small hospitals, a full 87 percent expect falling-to-negative profitability this year, mostly as a result of declining reimbursements, unrecovered collections, and improper and inefficient use of billing and records technology. The number for large hospitals was only 21 percent.
Old Solutions Wreaking Havoc
Outdated and “auto-piloted” RCM solutions are apparently causing a large number of CFOs to make some drastic decisions. Black Book found that 90 percent of respondents saw their older RCM solutions as a reason they will be forced to outsource their entire business office by 2016.
Acquiring entities face similar challenges, with 94 percent of large hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), and chains that have recently acquired physician practices indicating that the RCM solutions they’re inheriting are obsolete relative to current patient financial processes within the hospital.
Additional Findings
The survey also indicated that 81 percent of small hospitals are considering outsourcing as the best stopgap solution until they bring on new RCM software, and 75 percent of large hospitals want full software acquisition, and to avoid RCM outsourcing.