Anticlue

Imagine the possiblities - BI impact on revenue cycle operations

Just to share as a place for the longer term benefits. I noticed this blurb from the ACHE weekly update this week.

"Taking the Next Step in Revenue Cycle Management"
Health Data Management (11/08) Vol. 16, No. 11, P. 50; Anderson, Howard J.

Business intelligence (BI) applications gather, store, analyze and beef up access to data to improve decision making, and some healthcare organizations are using them to maximize cash flow. However, experts say many hospitals lack the underlying applications necessary to support data mining. Those already taking advantage of BI software are using it to analyze denied claims to determine why they are being rejected, provide dashboards that allow executives to view key financial indicators, monitor charge entries to pinpoint bottlenecks, determine why high-dollar cases have yet to be billed and produce trend reports that go as far as analyzing physicians' profits and losses. BI software can uncover patterns of rejected claims so errors can be quickly fixed, and it also can identify problems with insurance verification at the time of registration. Meanwhile, using BI to develop financial dashboards and report cards can help executives monitor cash collections, accounts receivable and other financial indicators without having to run numerous reports. Experts say BI also can save hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating the need to hire extra staff to produce custom reports, as enhanced data mining capabilities provided by BI applications produce very detailed reports.