How to Drive Change that Improves your Organization’s Bottom-line

Change is an inevitable part of business. This is especially true In health care. Whether you are looking down from 10,000 feet at the industry as a whole, or walking through the front door of the revenue cycle department. Countless factors drive what seems like a never-ending cycle of process improvements, KPIs, and system upgrades within the provider setting. This cycle can lead to organizational fatigue that hinders the strategic changes that can truly make a difference.

Over the last three years, revenue cycle operational fatigue has increased due to the pandemic, and the mandatory implementation of both price transparency and the No Surprises Act. Each of these increased the workload of revenue cycle teams without any associated efficiency gains or financial savings.

With Covid-19, price transparency and the No Surprises Act in the rearview mirror (relatively speaking), it’s time to start looking at tools and technology that can improve the lives of team members and generate cost savings for the organization...

Time Value of Time

The principle of the time value of money is the idea that if you invest money today, it will pay compounded dividends in the future. This same principle can be applied to the Value of Time.

If your current systems and processes require your team to apply 25% more effort than a more efficient system or process would, then your time value of time is diminished. The time value of time remains, at best, in a stagnate state but more likely in a loss state. Every day you continue, the value of your time remains negatively impacted.

Whether the time value of time compounds could be debated, but there can be no debate that time saved by a new system and/or process will provide countless benefits. The sooner, those savings begins, the greater the overall increase in your organization’s time value of time.

Ready To Change

Once you’ve done your due diligence and made a decision to move forward, it’s time to make your case and work to remove any potential obstacles.

Common Obstacles to New System and Process Adoption.

1. Budgeting and Approval Process.
2. Stakeholder Resistance to Change.
3. Inadequate Follow Up.

Budgeting and Approval Process. 

• Understand your organization’s budgeting process, key dates in the budgeting cycle, existing contractual obligations, as well as key decision makers. This information will help you, as well as any solution provider you have selected, prepare for making the pitch to the most appropriate people at the right time.
  
  
• This increases the likelihood of success when addressing budgeting and approval concerns. With the added benefit of ensuring resources aren’t misused too early for product demonstrations, meetings, and contract discussions. Timeliness leads to much more enthusiasm during the planning process.

Stakeholder Resistance to Change. 

• To successfully overcome stakeholder resistance to your proposed change, develop your business case to effectively explain the following:
  
  
• Rationale and urgency behind making the change
• Risk(s) of not going forward with the change
• Expected project costs, implementation timeframe, and ROI
• Any possible questions/concerns you’d expect certain stakeholders to bring up
• Be sure to incorporate change management principles into your business case to minimize concern over cost/resource allocation, adoption etc.
  
  
• Don’t hesitate to ask your potential business partner for help with this one. They have experience tackling this obstacle at all levels. Most business partners would be happy to help build your business case and ensure it is tailored to address concerns from all relevant stakeholders. An effective business case ensures greater buy-in from decision makers, IT departments, end users, as well as less foreseeable obstacles or personalities that may arise.

Inadequate Follow Up

• Once you’ve successfully pitched your proposal and gotten the paperwork taken care of – it’s important to remember your job isn’t done. Even the most effective implementation strategy can get off track without adequate attention.
  
  
• The project manager must ensure smooth interdepartmental communication by breaking down silos. This helps facilitate information exchange and resource readiness when certain stages of the implementation require it. Similarly, the project manager should be meeting with their team members to address issues related to process adoption, training, and vendor assistance are handled proactively.
  
  
• To minimize any disruption - it is vital for new changes to be reinforced throughout all stages of its implementation, go-live, and post go-live. An effective project manager will continuously follow up to ensure their goal is achieved.

At efficientC, when we work with a potential customer, we provide them with a detailed analysis of the positive impact of implementing efficientC. This includes both the human and financial impact.

We use data that we have gathered over time to show how an average implementation of efficientC can change the equation – for the good. This includes identifying additional revenue capture, reduction in denials and savings in full time equivalents (FTE). In almost all cases, the switch to efficientC will have a dramatic improvement in your revenue cycle success.

We know how hard it is to change and how hard it is to get everyone on board. That’s why we developed a proven implementation process that can be done in just eight weeks, and that limits your team’s involvement as much as possible. The efficientC team does all the heavy lifting using automation and proven methods to get you up and running on time and on budget.

In Summary.

Next to patient care, we believe that the hospital revenue cycle plays one of the most important roles in the success of operating a healthcare organization. The challenge of getting as much revenue paid can make a huge difference in the overall health of your hospital or clinic. We encourage you to look for areas where revenue cycle performance can be improved. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and your teams to be better. Change is hard but being better means a better experience for all: patients, employees, and partners.

If you would like to hear more about how efficientC can make a difference in your revenue cycle, reach out to the efficientC team.

Do not forget to subscribe to Revenue Cycle Matters for healthcare billing best practices and industry tips!