Strong Foundation Leads to a Stronger Revenue Cycle

Provide multiple technological access points that connect patients and providers to the health system, such as IoT, email, and mobile applications among others. This improves interaction and allows patients to easily find and access the care they need. Such technology allows the health system to personalize communication between the patients and caregivers and seamlessly integrates registrations, appointments, cancellations, and rescheduling.

One aspect that can assist and improve healthcare outcomes is appointment reminder services. This will reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations. Automated reminders on upcoming appointments or pending payments keep patients updated and help providers focus on patients’ health. In addition, the referral process must be made easy for both physicians and patients. One approach is to establish processes that proactively help patients make referral appointments, engage with them to answer questions and make sure that they follow pre-procedure instructions. Key steps in the referral process—like prior authorization of services—should be examined for potential automation to drive efficiency and reduce burdens on providers and patients alike.

Patient-centricity—a key focus of the healthcare industry—needs to be a pivotal component of the patient access solution. With the technology that delivers focused information at the right time, patients can plan their visits at their convenience.

Data analytics can help identify opportunities for improvement, offer visibility into the eligibility and registration processes, and support root cause analysis to drive corrective action. With analytics, providers can improve their point-of-service collections and reduce eligibility or authorization denials by 25%–30%. This lays a strong foundation for increased efficiency and success of the downstream revenue cycle process.