Editor’s note: This blog was written in collaboration with John Randzo, Senior Manager for Sunrise Solutions Management at Altera Digital Health, a healthcare revenue cycle management executive with over thirty years of experience in all phases of revenue cycle operations.

Over the last several years, stakeholders across healthcare have come together to address the persistent, widespread issue of provider burnout. From minimizing downtime to reducing documentation burdens, steady progress is being made.

At Altera Digital Health, we recognize that healthcare experiences could be better for everyone involved—including those in your organization’s finance department. Revenue cycle staff members need the ability to complete their work more efficiently and effectively so your organization is reimbursed fully and able to support high quality care.

Leveraging a single platform for revenue cycle management (RCM) is one way to make positive, sustainable changes in your business office. Across all revenue cycle functions, maintaining a single platform offers several benefits, including:

• Data integrity. With one platform, users can access and update data in real time, without delays caused by system integration. Additionally, using a single system enables staff members to make updates directly in one place. Maintaining a “single source of truth” with updated information helps reduce discrepancies, ensures the data remains consistent and accurate, and eliminates the need to correct the same data error again.
• User experience. Rather than switching between applications, staff members can perform their tasks within a single workflow, helping to minimize human error while simplifying the overall user experience.
• Reduced third-party dependencies. In conversations with clients, we often hear that they would prefer to have fewer third-party solutions to manage. By leveraging a single platform, healthcare organizations can potentially reduce their vendor costs and minimize the number of interfaces they need to maintain.

Now let’s examine a couple of the early stages of the revenue cycle to illustrate these benefits for your staff members and, in turn, your organization.

Patient Registration

Patient registration is typically housed within clinical applications or patient accounting systems. When disparate systems are used, the translation of data from one system to another can lead to mismatches, particularly when aligning clinical and financial records. If the data from registration doesn’t sync correctly with patient accounting, it can create billing errors and delays later in the revenue cycle. A single platform solution ensures that patient registration data aligns across clinical and financial functions, reducing reconciliation issues and improving billing accuracy.

Maintaining a “single source of truth” with updated information helps reduce discrepancies, ensures the data remains consistent and accurate, and eliminates the need to correct the same data error again.

Patient Scheduling

Healthcare organizations often use third-party scheduling vendors that offer specialized functionality. However, these solutions also require interfaces to send and receive data. Different systems may use distinct values for the same data points, causing inconsistencies. Also, the data may not always update in real time, leading to discrepancies between the scheduling and registration systems. With a single platform, organizations can ensure scheduling integrates with the broader RCM system without data translation issues.

Healthier financials, healthier organizations

From enhanced data accuracy to cost savings, a single platform approach to revenue cycle management offers significant benefits to healthcare organizations. By integrating key revenue cycle functions, organizations can reduce inefficiencies, streamline workflows and ultimately improve financial performance.

Looking for more ways to optimize RCM within your organization? Learn how Sunrise™ can help here.