How Next-Generation Automation Technology Can Improve Healthcare Revenue Management

The revenue cycle is incredibly complex due to shifting payer requirements, continuous regulatory compliance and coding updates, and emerging and evolving payment models. That complexity increases the administrative burden and drives up cost for providers. Today, nearly every role in every industry is facing some level of disruption. We are tasked with achieving more with less – less time, less resources, less information, and often less support. No industry has experienced this more than healthcare. Healthcare workers, from clinicians to administrative coordinators, are feeling the pressure to simultaneously improve patient outcomes and experience, reduce operating costs and increase billings.

Though it’s not front and center, one major component within any healthcare system that greatly impacts all three of these goals and where administrative and clinical workflows are intertwined is revenue cycle management. According to the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), revenue cycle management encompasses all the administrative and clinical functions that contribute to the capture, management and collection of patient service revenue. Unsurprisingly, the revenue cycle is incredibly complex due to shifting payer requirements, continuous regulatory compliance and coding updates, and emerging and evolving payment models. Numerous touchpoints and stakeholders produce complexity beyond just tracking revenue flows through an organization.