Cover Story
Robotic Disruption and the New Healthcare Revenue Cycle
Using software robots to perform repetitive, ongoing financial processes can improve efficiency, increase accuracy, and boost the overall well-being of a health system’s revenue cycle and other data management applications.
By Jerry Bruno, Sam Johnson, MBA, MHA, and Josh Hesley, MHA
From the President’s Desk
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Expanding on thoughts in his September 2017 column in hfm, HFMA President and CEO Joe Fifer discusses the upside of value transformation from a physician perspective. |
HFMA Video Spotlight
Video: Why Executive Presence Matters
Donde Plowman, executive vice chancellor for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provides insight into executive presence and how it affects women in the workplace.
Early Edition
MIPS: Getting Ready for a New Paradigm in Pay for Performance
Healthcare organizations that have not yet considered a strategy for participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) should begin planning now, or risk financial penalties.
By Jennifer Swindle and Susan Houck Clark
Ochsner’s Revenue Cycle Fellowship: An Investment in the Future
Ochsner Health System in New Orleans has created a fellowship aimed at cultivating future healthcare revenue cycle leaders.
By Katherine Cardwell and Brittainy McKinney
Healthcare Matters
Time for Hospitals to Pursue a ‘Nip and Tuck’ Chargemaster Pricing Strategy?
Hospitals should balance their concern about achieving the margins they require to accomplish their missions with the need to maintain defensible pricing in an environment of increasing healthcare price transparency.
By Jeff Helton, PhD, FHFMA, CMA, CFE
Features
Benefits of Establishing Meaningful Work Standards for Revenue Cycle Staff
Good work standards that lay out quality and quantity expectations have not become obsolete with increased automation; rather, they are as useful and necessary as ever for healthcare organizations and their revenue cycle staffs.
By Andrew Davis, MSHA, MBA and Ben Colton, MBA
Award-Winning Healthcare Providers Offer Insights for Improved Revenue Cycle Performance
The 17 winners of HFMA’s 2017 MAP Award for High Performance in Revenue Cycle offer tips on revenue cycle excellence that can benefit other providers.
By Laura Ramos Hegwer
Case Study
Avoiding the High Cost of High-Capture Leakage
Adoption of efficient practices, along with the implementation of a charge capture system that suits the needs of a healthcare organization, can bring significant recaptured revenue.
By Harriett Johnson and Dan Ward
Payment Security and Compliance: A Primer for Healthcare Revenue Cycle Decisionmakers
Compliance with credit card security standards has taken on greater importance for hospitals as with the increased likelihood that patients might use credit cards to cover growing payment obligations imposed by high-deductible health plans.
By David King
Focus Area
Payment
CAQH CORE Compliance: The “Voluntary Mandate” That Isn’t
To comply with HIPAA’s mandate regarding security of information transferred electronically, many organizations have adopted solutions that are not compatible with those of other organizations, making the transfer process cumbersome.
By Buster Elrod
Cost and Quality
Looking Beyond Cost Control: A New Role for Strategic Healthcare Supply Chain Leaders
Experiences of four healthcare organizations demonstrate the strategic role supply chain leaders can play in helping their organizations perform effectively in a value-based care model.
By Michael Schiller, CMRP
Columns
From the Chair
Swapping Stories: How Healthcare Finance Professionals Can Be Inspirational Leaders
By harnessing, through sharing, the power of stories about experiences in meeting a dealing with issues and challenges, healthcare finance leaders can begin to find that place where passion meets purpose.
By Carol A. Friesen, FHFMA, MPH
From the President
The Upside of Change: The Physician Perspective
Reframing organizational change can be the key to making change management easier for all concerned.
By Joseph J. Fifer, FHFMA, CPA
Eye on Washington
The Challenges of “Repeal and Replace”
Despite the success of the “repeal and replace” platform during election season, politics and numbers are getting in the way of Republican efforts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.
By Gail R. Wilensky
Healthcare Reform
The Opioid Funding Controversy: A Portent of the Upcoming Bipartisan Healthcare Reform Debate
The continuing efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act could open doors for advocacy groups to revisit aspects of the legislation they want to change.
By Ken Perez
Healthcare Value
Coming Up for Air: How Healthcare Organizations Should Respond to the Problem of Physician Burnout
Myriad programs and legislative efforts in the ever-changing healthcare landscape have physicians and others in health care weary.
By James Landman, JD, PhD
Advertising
Business Profile
HealthFirst Financial: Opening the Door to Affordable Health Care
KaLynn Gates, president and corporate counsel for HealthFirst Financial, discusses how a patient-centered financing program can drive patient satisfaction and enhance loyalty while improving organizational financial performance.
Business Profile
Ontario Systems: Maximizing Revenue While Improving Productivity
Shawn Yates, director, healthcare product management for Ontario Systems, discusses the value in leveraging technology to boost revenue recovery.
Supplements
Action Brief
Cerner: Strategies for Readying the Revenue Cycle for the Future
This action brief outlines several strategies that organizations can take now to prepare for healthcare payment reform—ensuring their revenue cycles are primed for the future while continuing to sustain high levels of current performance.
Executive Roundtable
GE Healthcare: Implementing a Combined Business Office: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities
Centralizing hospital and physician business offices presents opportunities to increase operational efficiencies, drive patient satisfaction, and realize other critical financial benefits. In this roundtable, participants discuss the advantages and challenges of a combined approach and also debate strategies for successfully navigating the integration process.
Executive Roundtable
Besler: Optimizing the Revenue Integrity Function
Although some organizations have a dedicated department or group focused on revenue integrity, others address the concept less formally. In this roundtable, senior leaders from several hospitals discuss their approaches to revenue integrity and provide strategies to improve and enhance the function.
Departments
Data Trends
10 States Far Exceed National Average for Average Charge per Medicare Admission
In U.S. 10 states, the average charge per admission far exceeds the same measure for any of the remaining states, significantly surpassing the national average for the measure.
Etcetera
Hoop Dreams: Healthcare Finance Leader Recalls World of Collegiate Basketball
Katie White turned her love of basketball into a full scholarship to college and then a way to help other aspiring athletes.
