The document discusses five ways to improve hospital revenue cycle management. It recommends trending and benchmarking healthcare data using an enterprise data warehouse to analyze performance over time and compare to others. Mining the data in an EDW can reveal problems and ways to improve revenue cycle processes. The document also suggests constantly asking frontline staff for suggestions, monitoring payer contracts, and maintaining caring patient touchpoints to improve the revenue cycle. An example is given of a physician group that improved collection times by analyzing registration desk data and improving processes.

1. © 2014 Health Catalyst
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© 2014 Health Catalyst
www.healthcatalyst.com
Proprietary. Feel free to share but we would appreciate a Health Catalyst citation.
Five Ways for Improving Hospital Revenue
Cycle Management
By Bobbi Brown

2. © 2014 Health Catalyst
www.healthcatalyst.comProprietary. Feel free to share but we would appreciate a Health Catalyst citation.
With cash flows declining, margins tightening, and bad debt
increasing, maintaining a steady income stream is crucial. There are
many opportunities to significantly improve your revenue cycle.
.
2
Improving Revenue Cycle Management

3. © 2014 Health Catalyst
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Trend and Benchmark Your
Healthcare Data
3
The best way to trend your data is to use an enterprise data warehouse (EDW).
An EDW combines data from your disparate IT systems, clinical, financial,
human resources, patient satisfaction, and others, and optimizes it for analysis.
Top 5 Tips
Improving
Revenue
Cycle Mgmt
1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
United States France United Kingdom Germany
Prevalence of patients undergoing renal transplant
(number of patients per 100,000 population)
You can’t manage what
you don’t measure.

4. © 2014 Health Catalyst
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Use an EDW to Mine Your
Healthcare Data
4
An EDW is a powerful solution that enables you to mine your data,
discover roadblocks, and determine how to improve. Get a good
analyst to go behind the scenes and see what the data reveals —
and then work to implement change in your organization.
Top 5 Tips
Improving
Revenue
Cycle Mgmt
2
Point
Solutions
Internally
Developed
Solutions
EDW Platform
Solutions
Agility and
Flexibility
Minimal; built for
specific purposes
Varies
High agility and
flexibility
Use across
multiple
systems
None
Not usually without
expert help
Yes
Time to Value Moths to Years Years Weeks to Months

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Constantly Ask Frontline
Staff for Suggestions
5
Trending and mining data with an EDW is invaluable for gaining insights to
improve your revenue cycle management. But don’t forget an equally
important resource: your frontline staff. They have a lot of insight to share —
and making them active participants in a culture of improvement helps to
guarantee sustainable change.
Top 5 Tips
Improving
Revenue
Cycle Mgmt
3

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Monitor All Payer Contracts
6
Effectively monitoring your contracts and
communicating clearly and frequently
with payers is essential. Make sure
payers aren’t under-reimbursing you,
denying too many claims, or putting
unreasonable demands on your patient
accounting office.
Use your EDW to easily measure the
yield. Is it changing over time? What
should it be? As we move to value-
based purchasing, such monitoring will
become far more difficult — and an
EDW absolutely necessary.
Top 5 Tips
Improving
Revenue
Cycle Mgmt
4

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Maintain Convenient and Caring
Touchpoints with Patients
7
Any patient contact is a public
relations possibility. Every person
who registers or schedules a
patient should have skills to do
their job efficiently and with a
caring attitude.
By making it convenient and
pleasant for the patient to do
business with you, you are far
more likely to get correct and
complete registration and
insurance information.
Top 5 Tips
Improving
Revenue
Cycle Mgmt
5

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Example:
8
A physician’s group was having
problems with increasing collection
time in accounts receivable. By using
the data analysis tools within the
EDW, we discovered the root of the
problem was a poor process at the
registration desk.
By simply scripting questions for the
registration staff, we were able to
decrease collection time in accounts
receivable, thus increasing cash flow,
while also continuing to provide a
good first impression for patients.

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Other Clinical Quality Improvement Resources
Click to read additional information at www.healthcatalyst.com
Bobbi Brown is Vice President of Financial Engagement for Health
Catalyst, a data warehousing and analytics company based in Salt
Lake City. Ms. Brown started her healthcare career at Intermountain
Healthcare supporting clinical integration efforts before moving to
Sutter Health and, later, Kaiser Permanente, here she served as
Vice President of Financial Planning and Performance. Ms. Brown holds an MBA
from the Thunderbird School of Global Management as well as a BA in Spanish
and Education from Misericordia University. She regularly writes and teaches on
finance-related healthcare topics. Ms. Brown holds an MBA from the Thunderbird
School of Global Management as well as a BA in Spanish and Education from
Misericordia University. She regularly writes and teaches on finance-related
healthcare topics including value-based purchasing, payer-provider collaboration,
revenue cycle management and Medicare reimbursements.
See how North Memorial Health Care increased labor productivity, reduced
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