In today’s healthcare organization sustaining a healthy revenue cycle is becoming increasingly difficult. Healthcare practices are constantly looking for new revenue cycle strategies that will bring in more revenue and reduce costs while always putting the patient first.
Additionally, organizations have had to adjust to new workplace realities – such as a remote or hybrid workforce and a shortage of labor – while simultaneously managing more difficult and complex revenue collections.
In these changing times, it can be challenging to come up with the right way to drive revenue cycle success. But for most businesses, the combination of a highly skilled workforce and the smart use of both automation and AI is the best way to get the most from your revenue cycle.
Cutting labor costs while keeping the best employees
Labor costs typically eat up more than half of a healthcare organization’s operating revenue, so looking at how to minimize the quantity of revenue cycle employees while increasing the quality of the workforce is key to maintaining a high-functioning revenue cycle.
Smart use of automation and improving workflow processes are important steps to increasing revenue cycle performance. But it is crucial not to overlook the human element. Managers who work in the revenue cycle must retain high-performing employees who can navigate the complexities and intricacies of billing errors and claims denials in ways that AI is simply incapable of doing.
While great employees are indispensable to your efforts, there are other areas of the revenue cycle where automation makes more sense than human labor.
For example, the main function of many revenue cycle employees is to key data. Whether that be scheduling, intake and registration, authorizations, coding and/or billing, in many revenue cycle departments, these functions are still being performed by human entry. But to be successful in the future, that is changing fast.
According to a 2022 US Bureau of Labor Statistics report (1), data entry keyer is among one of the fastest declining jobs in the U.S. The BLS estimates that by 2031, this role will be reduced by 24.7%.
It is no secret why companies are turning to automation for this job. Automation of your data entry reduces errors, is faster than human input, and in the long run, is far more cost-effective.
Simply put, these roles are being eliminated due to the advantages of using AI and automation. While such technologies cannot replace everything skilled workers do, they can be the best choice for many tasks, like data entry.
Striking a balance between automation and the human touch
The main objective of the revenue cycle has always been and will continue to be maximizing reimbursement from both payers and patients.
This means that financial and revenue cycle leaders who want to succeed in the future need to consider revamping their organization’s approach to revenue cycle management. They need to re-evaluate how their workflows can be enhanced with automation and AI to remove the redundancies and mundane, repetitive work their employees are currently doing.
Using automation in this way frees you up to use budgeted dollars to employ fewer but more skilled workers to deal with the complexities of prior authorizations, claims denials, appeals, and collections.
Additionally, these proficient workers will have more meaningful work within the modernized revenue cycle to assist in decreasing compliance risks with a focused approach to quality assurance. Repositioning your top performers into these critical thinking roles will mitigate revenue leakage while at the same time decreasing employee churn for the organization.
Using AI and automation can help your business move towards an exception-based work environment where employees are trained and skilled in taking on tasks that automation cannot. By asking your workforce to monitor the automated tasks while they also solve more complex problems and issues using their unique skills, you create a revenue cycle that is lean, high-performing, and ready for the future.
(1) US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022, Sept). Fastest declining occupations Sept 2022. www.bls.gov
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