Revenue Cycle Management

Automating the credit refund process increases efficiency, reduces errors and improves patient satisfaction, according to Suzanne Tschetter, director of patient financial services for the Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Experian is expanding its healthcare business by purchasing Medical Present Value, a revenue cycle management company headquartered in Austin, Texas, for $185 million.

Transforming clinical, administrative and operational processes are critical components for healthcare organizations looking to deliver higher-quality care and reduce costs, Melinda Hancock and Michael Spine of Bon Secours Virginia Health Systems said at ANI in Orlando, Fla.

With the prohibitive and rising cost of healthcare, there has never been a greater need for accountable care organizations, according to Mark McClellan, MD, former Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

We’ve heard it time and time again…patients are shouldering a significant portion of their healthcare costs and hospitals are struggling to address this shift in reimbursement. The source of poor cash flow may not be due to an inability to pay, however, but rather an inability to pay the way we choose to.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its June 2011 "Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System." The report includes a number of recommendations that have generated much controversy to address the growing use of ancillary services, particularly non-hospital diagnostic imaging services.

Many predictions were made early in 2011 about the issues that would challenge healthcare finance leaders this year. Does your experience bear them out?

When the United States economy was dominated by farming and manufacturing work, the motivational emphasis was on getting paid for more output: The more widgets you produced, the more money you earned, but that employment model is on the downswing, says Tim Kilpatrick, a revenue cycle consultant with Dell Services.

Materials management executives continue to be concerned about the financial health of their facilities according to a survey released by healthcare supply contracting company, Novation. The current economic environment and increasing industry demands are the executives' biggest worries.

Finding ways to create a payment model that rewards high-quality outcomes, reduces avoidable costs and protects payer and provider margins is the focus of the Monday morning education session, "Bridging the Payer and Provider Gap: Creating a Shared-Savings Payment Model for Increased Quality and Efficiency," at the HFMA's ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference in Orlando.