As the U.S. continues to battle the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders are discovering automation is more than just a technology tool. Using automation at an enterprise level can lower costs, accelerate digital modernization, and reduce the risk of cybersecurity threats. There’s nowhere this comes into focus more than in healthcare.
Automating mundane business practices doesn’t require a robot, but it does offload manual redundancies, by making sure data is entered accurately, or increasing the completion of repetitive, transactional processes.
Focus on Strengths Not Data Burden
Revenue cycle departments become much more strategic when focusing on health system strengths rather than administrative burden. Costly, labor intensive, error prone tasks are exactly where automation shines, transforming the business of healthcare and taking the waste out of the system. Automation increases efficiency by boosting productivity, reducing errors, improving efficiencies, and thereby reducing the levels of burnout, which we know is the top reason for the great resignation. Automation adds value to the process by taking the repetitive, routine tasks, applying business logic, and completing the follow-up actions, allowing staff to concentrate on items that require higher-level, human-to-human interaction.
Where to Apply RPA in the Revenue Cycle
Benefit and eligibility checks, as well as prior authorizations, are perfect areas for the power of automation. Administrative costs related to dealing with prior authorizations, plus the back and forth with payers, represents as much as one third of a physician’s compensation. It’s a very labor intensive process, and one fraught with errors. Automation brings improved accuracy and speed, reduces costs, and eliminates the frustration associated with this type of tedious tasking.
Claim denial management is another area perfect for automation in the revenue cycle. The Advisory Board states, “You’re probably leaving $22 million on the table,” by not following best practices in four key areas: denial write-offs, bad debt, cost to collect, and contract yield. Boston WorkStation helps you achieve revenue cycle success without sacrificing cost, time, or people.
Automation Fact vs. Fiction
Myth 1: One myth that is easily dispelled is that automation will take away healthcare jobs. Nothing is farther from the truth. Human workforces will be relieved by automation and enabled to take on higher value tasks rather than manual copy/paste/input data. When deployed successfully, automation empowers people and increases the amount of time available for patient-facing opportunities.
Myth 2: Another myth is that you need Artificial Intelligence (AI), not Robotic Process Automation (RPA), for the greatest benefit. Revenue cycle automations are actually RPA-powered, not AI-powered. A few vendors would like you to think it’s a long and expensive process to onboard automation. It’s not. We’ve been doing this for 30 years, and we onboard clients quickly, receiving 5-star customer service reviews.
Myth 3: RPA is difficult to scale. Actually, not true at all. We recommend starting an RPA project in one area, realize the benefit, then roll it out to additional areas within the organization. We concentrate on customer success, and that’s why our approval ratings are so high. Boston WorkStation 20 is a flexible, scalable solution that uses intelligent automation aspects to improve RPA success.
Leverage Technology with Automation
In a CFO survey conducted by Black Book, 92% of survey respondents believe the CFO of the future must do a better job leveraging technology and staff with IT skills for health providers to succeed financially. Automation is a great place to start, as it provides a measurable and fast ROI. It’s easy to implement, usually within 30 days, and the impact is tied directly to dollars-in-the-door. Automation reduces the amount of time spent on decision-making and improves the administrative workflow, speeds days in A/R, and increases revenue almost instantly. By automating revenue cycle management tasks, you can significantly streamline and advance financial processes, allowing people to focus on what’s at the heart of their jobs – advancing patient care.
Why Boston Software Systems?
90% of our projects are developed and deployed in under 30 days. One of our clients saved 180 hours per month and $20 million in failed claims re-submissions. Another recovered $2 million per year in ED billing, by automating auditing procedures, while a third saved 10 hours per day and $1.2 million per year by automating crossover claims processing. We have 30 years of well-documented success in the healthcare revenue cycle. We keep our promises and work hard to maintain customer loyalty by going that extra mile. Contact us to schedule a free assessment.