patient ID in healthcare

The Top 6 Reasons to Visit us in Booth #1252 at 2017 HFMA ANI

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patient ID in healthcare
The Top 6 Reasons to Visit us in Booth #1252 at 2017 HFMA ANI

Visit us in Booth #1252 at the 2017 HFMA ANI Conference and learn more about the benefits of biometric patient identification.

The following post was submitted by Brad Marshall, Senior Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient.

If you are heading to Orlando this weekend for the HFMA show, please take a moment while you are walking the Exhibit Hall to visit RightPatient in Booth #1252. We will be on hand offering demos of our biometric patient identification solution and Smart App that converts any smartphone or tablet into a powerful patient recognition device. Not convinced? Here are the top 5 reasons why RightPatient is a must stop while navigating the exhibit floor:

  1. See the RightPatient Smart App –  As we just recently discussed on this blog, the RightPatient Smart App provides healthcare organizations the ability to extend the power and reach of our patient identification solution to any smart device equipped with a camera. Using augmented reality and deep learning to identify patients, the Smart App is an ideal tool for clinicians to quickly and accurately identify unconscious patients, verify patients prior to medical procedures, improve patient safety, and securely capture and share clinical images. 
  2. Learn How to Humanize Health IT – As you may already know, the RightPatient patient ID solution captures a high resolution image of the patient’s face and then links that image to their medical record. Several of our existing customers have provided feedback on these patient photos via their clinicians who say that these pictures serve an important clinical purpose and are helping to improve the patient experience. These patient photos are helping clinicians feel more comfortable and better connected to the patient often serve as reminders about the clinical context of the patient. Learn how RightPatient is helping healthcare organizations across the country become more patient-centered than ever before.
  3. RightPatient is a Finalist in CHIME National Patient ID Challenge – We think this is kind of a big deal. Being named a finalist in this important initiative that could very well change the face of patient identification in healthcare as we know it, we recognize that being named a finalist is a true testament to the validity of our solution. It’s worth mentioning that of the finalists named, RightPatient is the only vendor that has a solution already being used in healthcare by many hospitals throughout the country. Stop by and learn why our solution was named a finalist in the Challenge. Go Team RightPatient!
  4.  Safeguarding PHI – Cybersecurity has become quite a hot topic in healthcare as we have witnessed one hospital system after another falling victim to attacks and rushing to bolster their security defenses. We are elated to see the increased emphasis placed on protecting networks but what about taking the same steps to protect data? Network security and data security are two separate areas and any upgrade to cybersecurity defenses simply must be met with commensurate upgrades to safeguard protected health information (PHI). After all, the digitization of healthcare has opened many new doors to access PHI (e.g. – patient portals, mHealth apps, telemedicine), shouldn’t healthcare organizations be proactively taking measures to implement patient ID solutions that can secure it?
  5. Learn about our SaaS model – With our software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, healthcare organizations can implement the patient ID platform for a small monthly fee that includes software, hosting, and support. And don’t worry. Our artificial intelligence system runs in the secure, HIPAA-compliant RightPatient Cloud to minimize deployment and IT costs. What could be better? Stop by the Booth to learn more.
  6. Accurate Patient ID Helps Revenue Cycle Management – Since revenue is a dominating theme of the conference, we thought we would mention that it is a proven fact that increasing patient identification accuracy will help prevent duplicate medical records, reduce denied claims, and improve the revenue stream. Stop by Booth #1252 and learn how you can improve revenue cycle management through an investment in RightPatient.

Skimming the agenda, the HFMA staff has again assembled a very compelling, highly informative conference packed with outstanding curriculum. Don’t forget that the Exhibit Hall is a treasure trove of education too, and we encourage you to take time and stop by to see why our patient identification solution is dominating the healthcare industry. 

Take a moment to watch this short testimonial video from George Ann Phillips, Administrative Director of Revenue Cycle for University Health System in Augusta, GA:

Drop us an email at: sales@rightpatient.com to pre-schedule an appointment or drop in and see us at your convenience. We can’t wait to see everyone in Orlando!

The Top 6 Reasons to Visit us in Booth #1252 at 2017 HFMA ANIBrad Marshall is a Senior Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient® With several years of experience implementing both large and small scale biometric patient identification projects in healthcare, Brad works closely with key hospital executives and front line staff to ensure project success.

RightPatient-ensures-patient-safety

Patient Safety a Focal Point for Latest RightPatient Deployment

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RightPatient-ensures-patient-safety
RightPatient-ensures-patient-safety

Community Medical Centers recently implemented RightPatient to improve patient safety and revenue cycle management. (Photo courtesy: The Fresno Bee)

Working to help increase patient safety in healthcare, Community Medical Centers (CMC) in Fresno, CA knew that implementing RightPatient using photo biometrics for patient identification was a step in the right direction. With a quick snap of a camera, patients can now rest assured that their medical identities are protected and clinicians will always have the most up-to-date, comprehensive medical record in their possession during treatment and care. 

The benefits of RightPatient extend beyond protecting patient medical identities however. A recent article in The Fresno Bee that covered the deployment of photo biometrics for patient identification at CMC illustrates the negative effect that chart corrections were having at the facility and how this was impacting revenue cycle management. The article states:

“Charting errors usually are caught early, before any treatment begins, but having to move information into the right chart is time consuming and expensive: Community Medical Centers spends about $190,000 a year to research and correct mismatched charts, she said. And that amount doesn’t include the approximately $300,000 a year the hospital system has estimated it loses on accounts that can’t be billed to insurance companies because the patient identification is incorrect.” (Source: http://bit.ly/2qaFJtw)

RightPatient helps establish accurate patient identification to ensure proper billing at CMC with the potential to drastically reduce chart corrections and increase CMC’s revenue collections. This is often an overlooked benefit of implementing biometrics for patient ID in healthcare.

Take a look at the video covering the deployment of RightPatient at CMC here:

Are you seeking to improve patient safety, reduce the time and money spent reconciling chart corrections, and increase revenue? RightPatient may be the answer. Contact us today for a free demo and let us help direct you on the path of accurate patient ID so you can realize the benefits of other healthcare organizations using photo biometrics.
RightPatient-for-patient-identification-to-reduce-duplicate-medical-records

Photo Biometrics Patient Identification Testimonial – University Health Care System

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RightPatient-for-patient-identification-to-reduce-duplicate-medical-records

We always relish an opportunity to visit hospitals and healthcare organizations who have made the smart choice to adopt photo biometrics for patient identification. Who better to share their story about events and conditions that lead to their decision to invest in RightPatient® Cloud?

We had an opportunity to sit down with George Ann Phillips, Administrative Director, Revenue Cycle at University Health Care in Augusta, GA to ask her why the hospital decided to invest in photo biometrics to increase patient safety, reduce chart corrections, duplicate medical records, improve revenue cycle collections, and humanize health IT by linking the patient’s photo to their electronic health record (EHR). Prior to implementing RightPatient®, University’s situation was not much different than many other healthcare organizations – a desire to prevent duplicate medical records, improve patient safety, streamline registration, and improve the patient experience.

RightPatient-for-patient-identification-to-reduce-duplicate-medical-records

After carefully evaluating RightPatient® against other biometric modalities, University decided that photo biometrics was a smarter investment and would help them to achieve their aforementioned goals. University staff liked the fact that by capturing the patient’s photo and storing it in the RightPatient® Cloud, they suddenly had the means to identify patients at any point along the care continuum – before portal login, during telemedicine sessions, and prior to administering medication or providing any clinical service. Clinicians immediately offered positive feedback to George Ann saying that having the patient’s photo linked to their medical record was an outstanding way to personalize their approach and gave them additional piece of mind to avoid any medical errors.

George Ann also pointed out that she was much more comfortable implementing photo biometrics because it supported hospital infection control policies and did not require the patient to touch any device to avoid the risk of contracting an illness or spreading germs. RightPatient® is the only biometric patient ID solution that is contactless and the only solution that truly has the ability to identify a patient no matter where they are along the care continuum. No other biometric identification solution can claim this.

University’s return on investment (ROI) has been strong since adopting RightPatient®:

  • 20% reduction in chart corrections
  • 99% patient acceptance (54,000+ patients enrolled so far)
  • Rapid deployment expansion to physician offices
  • Positive feedback from C-suite
  • Clinicians love seeing the patient’s photo
  • Streamlined patient registration
  • Improved patient experience

Take a moment to watch the short video here:

Thank you to George Ann Phillips and Beverly Bell from University for their assistance to make this video. Please share it with a friend or colleague!

revenue cycle management in healthcare

7 Tips to Improve Your Revenue Cycle Management in 2017

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revenue cycle management in healthcare

The following guest post on improving revenue cycle management in healthcare was submitted by Yeshwanth HV.

Amid the ever-changing regulatory environment, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) has become one of the most important concerns for healthcare leaders in the US. Effectively managing it ensures that there will be lesser accounts receivable, fewer complications and speedy recovery of patient payment, all of which will make a healthcare practice more efficient and responsive in terms of operational changes and growth. However, effective management of the revenue cycle has proven elusive to the providers in the current healthcare landscape. The good news is there are specific ways in which you can achieve this elusive feat. Here are seven tips that will help you to effectively manage your revenue cycle:

revenue cycle management in healthcare

Follow these 7 practical tips to improve revenue cycle management at your healthcare facility.

Set Benchmarks and Measure Them

Lord Kelvin, a famous British mathematician and engineer, once said: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” This is very true with regards to healthcare, especially if you are thinking on the lines of improving the efficiency and productivity of your RCM practices.
Hence start by identifying a set of benchmarks that are most important for the success of the organization such as average time taken to submit a claim, average reimbursement rate, and so on. If necessary opt to use comparative data from your competitors to keep you on the right path. Next measure the performance of your practice using the benchmarks that you have zeroed in on and see to it that you slowly improve your performance over time.

Get the Money You Are Owed

While evaluating the performance of metrics as suggested above, make it a point that you also keep a close watch on the collection rate. Tracking these metrics helps you to make sure that you don’t leave a significant amount of accounts in collections on the table, which can impact the financial stability of your practice.

An ideal RCM practice should be able to recover around 96% percent of accounts in collection. Take appropriate measures to bring your rate up to this mark or at least ensure that your collection rate is above 85 percent so that percentage of patients with outstanding bad debt will not get out of hand.

Audit Workflow

Conducting a regular audit of your typical RCM workflow – from patient scheduling to final claim submission – is a great way to streamline your operations. It helps you to discover issues and inefficiencies that may be hampering your ability to process claims in an expedient manner.
But make sure that you include your frontline staff in this process by taking feedback from them about things that are holding them back. This may help you uncover crucial flaws that you may have overlooked or taken for granted.

Track Denied Claims

Tracking every claim that is denied will help you to identify trends in mistakes with regards to billing, coding and other RCM related processes. The insights gained through these discoveries can be used to train your resources and augment your RCM practices.

Look Ahead to Regulatory Changes

Rules governing healthcare are in a constant state of motion. For instance, consider the last five years. First, it was the Affordable Care Act (ACA), then ICD-10 implementation and now it is a possible repeal of ACA. In such an ever-changing environment, it is always beneficial to make it a regular practice to stay aware of new statutes, guidelines, and codes that might come your way, and be prepared with effective counters to avoid revenue cycle disruptions arising due to these changes.

Pay Attention to Self-Pay Balances

A rise in the popularity of low-premium but high-deductible plans is likely to correspond with a rise in self-pay balances. And this can pose a serious challenge to the financial stability of practice, just like in the case of accounts in collection.
To mitigate the hurdles posed by this trend, you have to be proactive and find out a way to work with individuals so that their accounts do not have to go into collection.

Make Sure Your Current RCM Practice Meets Your Needs

Never take anything for granted and make it a standard practice to periodically question the value that your RCM system offers. Also make research ongoing into pricing, service offerings, and the latest software systems so that when your RCM system is lagging, you are perfectly aware of things that need to be done.

The Bottom-line

Navigating through the chores of today’s healthcare landscape is not easy. To be successful in such an environment, healthcare practices should be prepared to undertake a transformational RCM approach that focuses on improving the function as well as the flow of each moving part.

Author Bio: Yeshwanth HV is a healthcare writer at MedBillingExperts, a leading provider of healthcare business process outsourcing services such as medical billing, medical coding, and revenue cycle management services to medical practitioners and healthcare organizations worldwide. Dedicated to the healthcare industry, he has authored several blogs and articles that have received rave reviews in the industry. Prior to MedBillingExperts, Yeshwanth worked with CIO Review and has authored several bylined pieces for the quarterly editions of the magazine.

patient ID solutions for patient safety

How We Address the Patient ID Challenge in Healthcare

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patient ID solutions for patient safety
RightPatient-is-the-perfect-patient-ID-solution

We offer a “holistic” approach to patient ID in healthcare through an intuitive solution that has the ability to identify patients no matter where they are along the care continuum.

The Patient ID Challenge

It is well known that accurate patient identification in healthcare is a key linchpin for safe and effective care delivery. Traditionally defined as the ability to accurately identify a patient during a physical trip to the hospital or doctor’s office, the rapid digitization of healthcare has opened up a host of new touchpoints along the care continuum, creating a strong need for healthcare organizations to re-think their approach and evolve to a patient identification strategy beyond collecting a government issued ID, insurance cards and patient demographics. Many are evaluating the use of biometrics to improve patient identification accuracy and patient safety.

Healthcare organizations are in a sticky predicament. In addition to addressing the most common patient identification challenges, which include:

  • Patients having common names
  • No ID present
  • Patients stealing or sharing identities and insurance
  • Frequent flyers/drug seekers
  • Staff entering the wrong information

they must now factor in new touchpoints borne from the aforementioned digitization of the industry, such as:

  • Telemedicine 
  • Connected health/mHealth devices
  • Patient portals
  • Home health visits

In other words, healthcare organizations must now address patient ID in a “holistic” manner — adopting versatile technology that can be used at any point along the care continuum, no matter where a patient seeks care or access to protected health information (PHI).

As the healthcare industry transitions to value-based care, there is no arguing that the increase in new patient touchpoints along the care continuum has increased convenience and efficiency. However, it also raises new risks that can quickly pollute data integrity and endanger patient safety. Investing in a biometrc patient ID solution that covers in-person visits is smart, but without the ability to quickly scale the technology and cover the new touchpoints mentioned above, it can be a huge risk to healthcare organizations.

How RightPatient® Addresses the Patient ID Challenge

We approach the patient ID challenge from a different angle. Instead of pushing a biometric solution that limits healthcare providers to verifying patient identities when they arrive for an appointment or emergency, our patient identification platform uses biometrics, cognitive intelligence and deep learning to recognize patients at provider sites, during virtual encounters (e.g. patient portals, telemedicine) and in care environments outside of a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office.

Offering the industry’s most advanced, scalable, and versatile patient ID platform based on over 15 years of experience in biometrics, system integration and cloud computing, RightPatient’s core cognitive vision technology empowers healthcare providers to recognize patients with ease and accuracy from ANY end point:

RIghtPatient-cognitive-vision

  • Patient ID – Accurately identify patients at registration areas, kiosks, the ED & more; retrieve the correct medical record to prevent duplicates, fraud & human error
  • Patient Photo – Improve safety and personalize the patient experience by embedding patient photos in the medical record and other applications through the RightPatient® photo integration server
  • Portable ID – Strengthen security and patient safety by recognizing patients during portal login, telehealth visits, other remote encounters, and with our unique PatientLens™ smartphone app
  • Analytics – Aggregate and analyze patient visit data, and access a concrete audit log of visits with patient photos for compliance and dispute resolution
Photo-biometrics-for-patient-identification-in-healthcare

A patient takes “selfie” photo with a non-contact camera, which can be used for subsequent authentication at any point along the care continuum.

Using RightPatient, healthcare providers can accurately identify patients by simply taking their picture, offering these distinct advantages that no other patient ID solution can match:

  • No hygiene issues (non-contact)
  • The most accurate solution – nearly 3 times more accurate than any other method
  • Scalable, real-time duplicate prevention (identify without having to enter DOB or other credentials)
  • Very fast enrollment & 1:N matching speed (identify in seconds)
  • Minimum enrollment age: 1 year
  • Simultaneous photo capture
  • Not locked into a single device or manufacturer ; lowers long-term risk

We extend the flexibility of our intuitive and best-of-breed patient ID platform through PatientLens™ which turns any off-the-shelf smartphone or tablet into a reliable patient identification tool, empowering clinicians to accurately identify patients through its combination of facial recognition and deep learning capabilities. Designed to quickly identify a patient by using the camera on any smart device, PatientLens™ reduces risk and improves quality by enabling clinicians to easily and accurately verify patient identities, even when they are unconscious.

Conclusion

The inability to accurately identify a patient throughout the care continuum is a huge risk for healthcare providers. Healthcare digitization and the explosion of virtual access to data and care necessitates a more “holistic” approach to patient identification. This will improve patient safety and reduce provider costs while preventing the risk of data breach and adverse health events.

Healthcare organizations need a versatile, scalable solution with seamless EHR integration that removes the IT burden during implementation and offers a flexible adoption model. If you have been thinking about adopting biometrics for patient identification for your organization and want to learn more about our solution and how we are revolutionizing this critical part of effective and safe care delivery, please visit us at HIMSS in Booth 3015 to see a demo and learn more.

identifying the right patient in healthcare increases patient safety

Ensuring the Right Patient in Healthcare

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identifying the right patient in healthcare increases patient safety
Ensuring the Right Patient in Healthcare

Joe Lavelle with IntrepidNow Healthcare recently interviewed our Co-Founder Michael Trader to discuss the current state of patient identification in healthcare. (Photo re-used with permission from IntrepidNow Healthcare.)

Our thanks to Joe Lavelle and his staff at IntrepidNow Healthcare for the opportunity to appear on his podcast to discuss the current state of identifying the right patient in healthcare. Although accurate identification in healthcare to determine the right patient at all points along the care continuum continues to surge as a focal point for organizations to increase patient safety and improve data integrity, there is still a lot of unanswered questions about how to develop and implement an industry wide solution that has the ubiquity and scale for use by everyone.

Additional topics covered during the podcast include:

  1. The importance of establishing remote patient identification for touchpoints along the care continuum beyond in-person visits such as patient portals, connected health apps, home health visits, telemedicine, and more.
  2. Why establishing a holistic patient identification strategy is now required in healthcare.
  3. Details on the RightPatient® cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.
  4. Why photo biometrics is hands down the most effective, secure, flexible, scalable, and hygienic solution to determine the right patient in healthcare.
  5. Updates on CHIME’s national patient ID contest.
  6. What additional elements are needed to advance discussion of accurate patient identification in healthcare to a congressional level.
  7. RightPatient®’s plans for the upcoming HIMSS conference in Orlando.

As we approach the annual HIMSS conference, it’s important to continue dialogue and advancing initiatives that show promise to resolving the patient identification crisis in healthcare. Identifying the right patient at the outset of each encounter with the healthcare system ensures the success for many other downstream activities and is the only true way to improve and maintain data integrity — the true linchpin for interoperability and health information exchange.

We invite you to visit RightPatient® in the GA Health IT Pavilion, Booth #3015 at the HIMSS conference to see firsthand how adding cognitive vision to a healthcare technology ecosystem improves revenue cycle management and secures a patient portal, among many other uses. 

Here is our Co-Founder Michael Trader’s conversation with Joe Lavelle from IntrepidNow Healthcare: 

Thank you again to Joe Lavelle and his staff for this opportunity!

review of biometric patient identification educational session at 2016 HIMSS conference

Takeaways on Biometric Patient ID from HIMSS 2016 Conference

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review of biometric patient identification educational session at 2016 HIMSS conference
Takeaways on Biometric Patient ID from HIMSS 2016 Conference

Several educational sessions at the 2016 HIMSS conference were dedicated to patient ID in healthcare.

Like most who attended last week’s annual HIMSS conference in Las Vegas, I was a bit overwhelmed at the amount of information, activities, and traffic swirling around the Exhibit Halls and lecture rooms. It’s difficult to not get swallowed up among 40,000+ attendees and even more hard to block out the flashing lights and unbelievably cool technology on display in order to focus on what matters most, but I had a set agenda to follow and stuck to my plan. This was the third HIMSS conference I have attended and I continue to be amazed at the outstanding job that HIMSS staff does to pull off this event each year, which only seems to keep growing in size, scope, and complexity. Hat tip to HIMSS staff who work tirelessly on making this event successful!

Buried among the central themes of advancing interoperability, cybersecurity, population health, consumer and patient engagement, and connected health, there were a handful of educational sessions dedicated to patient identification in healthcare including a presentation by Dr. Raymond Aller, a Clinical Professor at the University of California entitled: “Patient Identification: Biometric or Botched?”

This was the only educational session at the conference that I could see which was 100% dedicated to the use of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare and it was well attended – I counted approximately 75 people who showed up for the session. 

Dr. Aller presented what I felt was a fair, unbiased analysis of the patient identification landscape in healthcare and a thorough analysis (including strengths, weaknesses, and deployment examples) of biometric patient identification modalities available to hospitals and health organizations. Here is a brief overview of Dr. Aller’s central themes, and what he presented:

  1.  Text based patient identification is simply no longer an efficient or safe way to ID patients: Dr. Aller began his presentation by listing the consequences of failing to properly identify a patient including the patient safety, legal, and liability issues and public relations nightmare misidentification can create. He then demonstrated the drawbacks and limitations of text based patient ID calling it “obsolete” and pointing out that in 2016, hospitals and healthcare organizations can no longer afford the risks associated with this form of identification. He even went so far as to question the viability of continuing to use a master patient index (MPI) as a patient data repository, calling it a “dangerous” and “obsolete” concept.
  2. Healthcare fraud and medical identity theft: Dr. Aller then explained the potentially catastrophic consequences of healthcare fraud, medical identity theft, and duplicate medical records from misidentifying a patient and the additional problems and risks that data merges pose stressing that too often, hospitals spend hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars a year cleaning data and merging records without ever having the foresight to implement technology that will sustain patient data integrity in the future. Bottom line? Relying on names and dates of birth (“what you know”) and ID cards (“what you have’) to identify patients is simply no longer safe or sufficient. The patient identification industry is evolving to identify patients by “who they are.”
  3.  Biometric patient identification technology overview: The last third of Dr. Aller’s presentation centered on an overview of biometric patient identification technologies available including a detailed description of fingerprint, palm vein, and iris recognition (also referred to as “photo biometrics”). Although Dr. Aller left out some key points about these biometric patient identification modality options (for example, he did not mention the back end biometric matching technology behind each of these modalities and why this is important to understand), his review was fair and provided a relatively unbiased look at the strengths and limitations of using biometrics for patient identification. One interesting point that Dr. Aller made was the fact that in a clinical setting, the use of fingerprint and palm vein biometrics for patient identification creates questions about hygiene and supporting hospital infection control policies because a patient must physcially touch a device for identification – an attribute that is not a factor with iris recognition since it is contactless to the patient. 
  4. Conclusion: Dr. Aller concluded his presentation by further extolling on the strengths of biometrics for patient identification but cautioned the audience that biometrics are by no means a panacea due to select psychological, sociological, and physiological limitations. However, Dr. Aller did point out that his research indicated that when presented with the option of using biometrics to protect their medical identities and keep them safe throughout the care continuum, over 99% of patients opt-in to using the technology.
  5. Question and Answer session: Selected attendees asked some very interesting questions during the Q&A session including one woman from a neonatal hospital who lamented that it is very difficult to identify newborns with biometrics since neither palm vein or fingerprint biometrics can be used on children (photo biometrics can be used on any child 10 months or older). Another person asked what biometric technology could be used to verify patient identities over the phone when they call in requesting access to protected health information (PHI).

Several other educational sessions during HIMSS were centered on patient identification in healthcare with several common themes emerging:

  1. The healthcare industry is slowly shifting from credential based to identity centric patient ID.
  2. A central reason that more hospitals aren’t researching how to more effectively identify patients are competing priorities. Healthcare simply has to drop the “wait and see” attitude to more effective patient identification. 
  3. 198,000 deaths annually can be contributed to patient misidentification.
  4. Patient misidentification resulted in $77 billion Medicare and Medicaid fraud and improper payments.

If I had a crystal ball, I’d venture to say that patient identification will continue to be a hot-button topic in healthcare during 2016 and beyond, largely because so many other elements of care along the continuum are contingent upon it and so many back-end processes and functions (e.g. – revenue cycle management) depend on getting it right. 

What lessons did you take away from any of the HIMSS 2016 educational sessions dedicated to patient ID in healthcare?

update revenue cycle management

5 Big Indicators You Should Replace Your Revenue Cycle Management Solution

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update revenue cycle management

The following guest post was submitted by Eugenia Lin.

If you saw a friend using a computer still running on Windows XP, your immediate reaction would be to ask why they haven’t updated to a newer operating system. XP is now 15 years old and Microsoft no longer provides technical support or security updates for it. Unless they really enjoy playing Solitaire and putting their data at risk, then there’s no excuse for having outdated software. The same reasoning applies to your revenue cycle management (RCM) system. Having an updated RCM solution will not only empower your staff, but also benefit your financial bottom line. Here are a few indicators that your RCM software needs updating:

update revenue cycle management

What are some obvious signs that you need to upgrade your revenue cycle management (RCM) system?

1. Lack of business intelligence (BI) reporting and analytics
BI reporting is an incredibly powerful tool that allows one to obtain insights and identify trends on both a macro and micro level. For example, through macro level reporting a practice’s overall profitability can be reviewed. Then through the same interface, the data can be segmented further down to the profitability of all offered procedures. Easily accessing such information in a self-service manner not only shortens the decision making process but also excludes the need for outside consulting parties.

2. Unable to manage a growing or a multi-clinic practice
If your RCM system isn’t scalable or doesn’t offer customization for medical specialties, then it is time to look for another solution. There are systems available that are able to manage a solo provider, a multi-clinic practice, and anything in between. The benefit of this, is that a business manager can oversee and administer at any level easily.

3. Fails to manage and facilitate the entire claims process
It is essential that your RCM system be capable of managing the claims process from start to finish. Starting with claims from scrubbing to prevent coding errors and typos, as human error is one of the most common causes for payment denial. Your RCM system should also provide snapshot reporting, allowing you to monitor outstanding claims and categorizing them by where in the process they are. It should also provide alerts on claims that need following up on, so that none fall through the cracks.

how can you improve revenue cycle management?

4. Doesn’t fit into current workflow
Another clue that your RCM solution needs replacing is when it’s impeding your practice’s efficiency. Current RCM systems contain tools and features that improve workflow and staff productivity. RCMs can instantly verify insurance eligibility directly through the user interface, allowing your staff to focus on other tasks and avoid wasting time navigating through an insurance provider’s automated phone system. They can also easily manage payment reminders and follow-ups through automated texts or emails.

5. Doesn’t provide important features or cannot integrate with other systems
Having an RCM system able to seamlessly cooperate with your practice’s other system can be greatly beneficial. For instance, when integrated with an EHR system, the claims process becomes even more automated and less prone to errors. As forms can be auto filled with data from a patient’s file, versus a staff member having to manually fill the forms while referring to a paper chart or a separate note taking system.

Eugenia Lin avidly enjoys writing about a variety of topics and currently writes on behalf of the revenue cycle management experts at OmniMD. When not writing, she can be found spoiling her pet, Yeti, with treats or trying to be active outside on those typical Seattle rainy days. You can find her at LinkedIn.