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: Can Patient Financial Services’ collection agency comments be streamlined to eliminate human intervention when posting to patient’s accounts?
A: MEDITECH can streamline posting collection agencies’ patient accounting comments with the setup of MIS inbox/outbox interfacing. Obtain specifications per MEDITECH’s requirements, and work diligently with collection agency to setup and streamline interfacing process. Once [...]

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 [...]

While recently performing a Retroactive Managed Care/Commercial Underpayment Review on our most recent client it really hit me in the face how much money hospitals are leaving on the table. I am sure most CFO’s and Managed Care Directors believe all you have to do is bill the claim and the managed care and commercial [...]

Upon reading an article “Linking Technology with processes for payment
collection” in the June HFM Magazine, I am continually amazed by the number of Revenue Cycle personnel in hospital’s who utilize manual spreadsheets and manual effort to perform their jobs or to provide information to their managers and the CFO. Many of these functions and [...]

As I look back on a Webinar presented by Healthcare IT and Finance news sponsored by Information builders in 2008. I remember a statement in this presentation that a hospital uses less than 10% of their data in decision making. With the state of the economy I doubt this figure has improved and perhaps has [...]