3 ways RCM analytics can ease healthcare staffing challenges

In a statement before Congress, the American Hospital Association called the current staffing challenges in healthcare a “national emergency.” With more than 90% of healthcare financial leaders saying they have an RCM labor shortage, the need to streamline workflows and consolidate tasks is nearly universal for providers.

In this blog, we discuss the driving factors behind healthcare staffing shortages and share three ways to find creative solutions to workforce challenges from an unexpected source: your analytics.

Why is there a staffing shortage in healthcare?

The current healthcare staffing shortage is the culmination of numerous contributing factors.

The global pandemic elevated the staffing crisis to a new level as workers left the field in unprecedented numbers and healthcare organizations struggled to fill vacant positions amid record-breaking budget shortfalls.

COVID-19 has subsided, but staffing issues persist as providers compete to recruit new hires, provide appropriate training, retain existing staff, and take steps to mitigate burnout and turnover.

3 ways to use analytics to ease healthcare staffing challenges

1. Equip staff with visualization into repetitive tasks

RCM is repetitive by nature.

To be sure, repetition is key to mastery. However, when a task is being performed incorrectly or inefficiently — a biller failing to follow a payer-specific rule, for example — and it’s repeated over and over, the negative impacts quickly multiply.

Soon, you’re facing a slew of denials and a mountain of corrections to work through in order to get paid. In other words, more work for overextended RCM staff.

Your analytics can put a stop to this inefficient cycle, helping you identify bottlenecks that are reducing staff productivity and pinpoint denial sources that are slowing down cash flow.

By taking a holistic view on the repetitive tasks billing staff perform every day (and their results), you can implement custom business rules that address and automate these tasks. Not only does this save staff time, but reduces errors and mitigates lost revenue. Eliminating tedious work improves staff satisfaction and ensures that no labor is needlessly wasted.

2. Engage all departments in increasing cash flow

Billers, coders, and patient access staff may hold varying job titles, but they all impact the revenue cycle. Therefore, they should all be engaged in the collection and management of revenue.

It’s a simple concept, but it’s one that’s often overlooked in favor of rigid job duties and “the way things have always been done.” In the face of persistent staffing shortages in healthcare, organizations can’t afford not to engage all RCM employees in increasing cash flow.

From an analytics standpoint, this means using data to align denials to the responsible team member and department to help show departments their influence on revenue (good or bad). Then, that same team member or department can be engaged in denial prevention.

When you increase accountability, you enhance staff efficiency. In turn, you also increase your first-pass yield, which can provide some much-needed relief for strained budgets.

Increasing accountability also has a more intrinsic result: boosting staff engagement, which provides satisfaction beyond a paycheck. Engaged staff are less likely to experience burnout and more likely to stay on the job longer, which translates to lower turnover costs.

3. Confirm productivity levels to enhance workflows

All too often, financial leaders don’t have a full grasp on RCM performance and revenue intake until the month’s end. Unfortunately, at this point, it’s too late to do much about inferior results.

With real-time user performance analytics, on the other hand, you can uncover productivity lags as they’re occurring so you know exactly where to focus your efforts to strengthen results. This enables you to proactively identify areas for operational improvements, which ultimately leads to more efficient processes overall.

Additionally, a real-time understanding of RCM productivity makes cash flow more predictable. Leaders are empowered with the revenue projections they need to make smarter financial decisions across the organization, including staffing and workforce management determinations.

Ease healthcare staffing challenges with an intelligent RCM analytics solution

It’s easy to leverage the above strategies with RCM Intelligence, a fully integrated, EHR-agnostic, predictive analytics application. RCM Intelligence alleviates the strain of staffing shortages by providing an end-to-end view of your revenue cycle, which can help you pinpoint areas to streamline workflows and gain efficiency.

Its up-to-the-minute performance insights show you exactly where productivity breakdowns are occurring so you can take corrective measures, while its user-specific scorecards give you the data you need to involve every team member in financial growth. Pre-defined industry KPIs and automated reporting capabilities save time, helping to accomplish more with fewer resources.

Discover how RCM Intelligence can help your organization improve cash flow by 15% and reduce denials by 40%.¹

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Sources:

1 Inovalon internal reporting. Average of customer results, February 2023