3 Patient Access Practices to Leave Behind for More Efficiency, Satisfaction and Revenue
There’s no denying, it’s been a challenging couple of years. And for the healthcare industry−downright crippling. In 2022, hospitals and health systems faced their most difficult financial year since the onset of the pandemic. Resignations, rising labor costs, supply chain disruptions, and inflation continually force hospitals to do more with less.
Add outdated, manual patient access processes, and you’re only making these problems worse by overworking already strained staff and creating inefficiencies that lead to denials and revenue loss.
It’s time for a fresh start. Leave these three revenue-draining patient access practices behind, and you’ll be on your way to improved efficiency, satisfaction and revenue.
3 Patient Access Practices to Leave Behind for More Efficiency, Satisfaction and Revenue
1. Multiple Vendors, Systems and Unnecessary Costs
The pandemic accelerated the digital movement in healthcare, but it came at a cost. In the rush to enable digital front doors and virtual waiting rooms to improve patient and staff safety, hospitals were quick to adopt patient engagement tools.
The problem? Many hospitals are now left expending time and resources managing multiple vendors with disjointed systems. Simple patient engagement tools were built with basic communication in mind lacking the registration quality assurance processes hospitals need to reduce denials, rework and lost revenue as they enable patient self-service prior to and at the time of registration.
The most effective way to enable a consumer-friendly model that also ensures data integrity to protect and grow revenue, is with one, integrated platform. AccuReg EngageCare® combines our market-leading patient access solutions with digital intake and engagement tools to enable the digital experience patients expect while automating critical access functions to reduce denials, rework and write-offs.
2. Fax Machines, Web Portals and No-Auth Denials
Prior authorization topped the list in MGMA’s 2022 Annual Regulatory Burden Report, and with good reason. Manual, labor-intensive and complex, providers incur millions in administrative costs each year obtaining and managing prior authorizations. MGMA’s survey of group practices revealed 82 percent rated prior authorizations as extremely burdensome while 89 percent indicated hiring additional staff or redistributing current staff to keep up with the demands of prior authorizations.
While there is promising new prior authorization reform underway that would save providers 213 million staff hours and $15 billion in costs over 10 years, hospitals can’t afford to wait for the government to intervene.
Start 2023 with our end-to-end automated prior authorization solution and leave no-auth denials behind. Part of our EngageCare platform, our solution applies an adaptive rules engine built at the payer plan level for determination, submission, retrieval, and sophisticated pattern analysis to the five best-practice steps of prior authorization, reducing the time, resources and costs required to obtain and manage prior authorization. AccuReg navigates ever-changing payer portals, rules and requirements, allowing for fully automated auth determination, integrated into your EHR.
Our end-to-end prior auth solution:
- Initiates, submits and retrieves instant authorization determination using real-time EDI transactions for most common procedures
- Manages and maintains authorization determination rules for all payers
- Provides staff with real-time alerts and instructions through our intuitive workflow on how to obtain authorization and initiate submission, along with all required documentation
- Monitors response status to retrieve authorization or denial, saving staff time
- Integrates results with EHRs
3. Clipboards, Sign-In Sheets and Manual Patient Intake
Consumer demand for a modern digital healthcare experience has never been greater. Manual registrations and tedious data entry won’t give your hospital the competitive advantage it needs in 2023 to increase patient volume and retain qualified staff.
It’s time to ditch the clipboards.
Instead, welcome patients with digital intake and engagement tools that streamline processes and allow patients to complete their own tasks, anywhere, anytime, from any device. Incorporating digital self-service technology optimizes staff resources during critical shortages and increases satisfaction by allowing patients to control their own healthcare experience.
Shifting administrative responsibilities to patients frees your registrars to focus on higher value activities, concierge-level customer service and pre-service payment.
EngageCare Patient:
- Enables online pre-registrations using digital forms and assessments and eSignatures, for fast, no fuss patient intake−completed entirely by the patient
- Utilizes automated appointment reminders to minimize no-shows and late arrivals, a major contributor to lost revenue
- Allows patients to check-in digitally from the virtual waiting room or at kiosks
- Improves patient flow (throughput) management and cross-department collaboration with comprehensive tracking and dashboards throughout the patient care journey
- Allows patients to access accurate cost estimates and make one-touch payments increasing cash
Engage With Us
Ready to leave outdated patient access processes behind? We’re ready to help. EngageCare integrated patient access, intake and engagement can help you improve efficiency, while optimizing patient experience and increasing revenue. Contact our team by completing a contact request form.