As a revenue cycle consultant for Zimmerman & Associates in the early 90s, I served as an analyst for the HARA report. For those of you who started your career after it was in circulation or don’t recognize the name, HARA stood for Hospital Accounts Receivable Analysis. At the time, it was the industry-leading publication that discussed healthcare billing best practices and trended major KPIs. Which brings me to my reason for this article - the GDRO benchmark (Gross Days Revenue Outstanding) for a superior performing hospital at the time was anyone reporting 60 days or less.

Revenue Cycle Management is a vast operation for every healthcare organization starting prior to patient intake and continuing on through to financial reporting. Each stage of the healthcare revenue cycle has its own terminology that, for mere mortals (all of us), can increase the complexity of our day-to-day and make the job harder!

In our previous Revenue Cycle Matters posts, we discussed the importance of clearinghouse and claim scrubber partners as part of an effective revenue cycle management strategy. We also highlighted the benefits of focusing on first pass yield and clearinghouse features that support positive collection outcomes.