Accounting & Financial Management
The numbers speak to the struggles the healthcare industry faces as it remains in the midst of the battle against the coronavirus.
Getting paid has become imperative during a time when both hospitals and patients may be cash-strapped.
The mark was propelled by strong IPO environment and robust private merger and acquisition activity.
The numbers don't necessarily reflect worse performance among system-affiliated groups, but rather a different mix of expenses and services.
"A big contributing factor to this success was the creation of auto-text templates for common procedures, all pre-verified by coders to meet billing requirements," said the health system's CMIO.
Patient volumes, adjusted admissions and federal funding contribute to the outlook, although outside factors could change this.
Health spending increased at a slightly faster rate than gross domestic product, but the report analyzed figures prior to the pandemic.
Expenses continue to rise as hospitals replenish staff to meet rising coronavirus cases and incur the costs of drugs and PPE.
The system's digital transformation achieved Stage 7 designation from the HIMSS Analytics Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity.
When health systems have their staff manage revenue cycles, up to 25% of the day can be spent on repetitive tasks related to the revenue process.