Q: How can I get information from my IT system?
A: Most healthcare organizations are under utilizing their primary IT system because they are not getting the reports they need to do their job. Because systems come with a basic set of (”canned”) reports, they try to use them, yet find them inadequate and incomplete. [...]

Q: How can my organization’s IT System assist in managing our denials?
A: By obtaining periodic computer generated reports showing your monthly denial rate and your monthly denial recovery rate. If your denials exceed 18% or your denial recovery rate is less than 80%, more effort should be spent on preventing and working denials.
Bruce Jacbos
Director, Financial [...]

I have often heard, “If my organization does not have a Contract Management and Payment review process. How much Revenue do you think I might be losing?”
The bottom line is this, some estimates are 10-12% but as a general rule of thumb it is 3-6%, which in your organization may equate to Millions of Dollars. [...]

The other day my boss sent me an interesting article titled, “Finance: Buoying the Bottom Line,” distributed by HealthLeaders Media. This article stated that the recession has caused a nationwide shift in priorities among Hospital CFO’s. Healthcare financial leaders ranked their top three priorities for the next three years. These in order are: Physician recruitment, [...]

According to the January 2008 issue of the Healthcare Financial Management Magazine Hospitals were losing anywhere from 8% to 14% of their managed care and commercial revenue because of improper payments. I am sure with inflation the figure has probably grown, and in this economy how many hospitals can really afford to write off 8-14% [...]

I still keep reading that Healthcare bad debts and charity care are rising due to our country’s economic status and the continuous increase in unemployment.  I believe hospitals have tried to cut costs especially in the area of reducing staff, another topic I keep reading about.  I also see that hospitals keep expanding as well [...]

Over the past few months, I have had numerous conversations with Hospital CEO’s. Each of these conversations seem to center around their respective hospital’s financial operations and the fact that their net profits have deteriorated over the last one or two years to the point that they are now showing losses. These CEO’s [...]

I just read another article in the January/February issue of Healthcare Finance News entitled, “Healthcare hiring could boom in 2010,” by Richard Pizzi, the editor. According to this article the demand for healthcare professionals in 2009 was stronger than any other sectors. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare has added over 600,000 [...]

I often ask my clients “Are you in Denial about your Denials” whereby the following questions are asked:
* Are you maximizing your commercial and managed care recovery?
* Do you track Denials by payor and the Reasons for Denials?
* Do you know what your Denial Rate is?
* Do you know what your [...]

I read more and more about patient customer service, patient satisfaction to maintain and attract patients and try and create loyalty to their particular hospital. In reading these varied articles I think about what the cost associated with doing this might be and I don’t think to many organizations have been able to assign a [...]