Revenue cycle management teams should expect more innovation in 2021, as 57 percent of health system executives say they're optimistic change will come to the space in the next year, according to a survey from the Center for Connected Medicine and KLAS Research.
The survey asked 117 executives from 112 health systems how innovation priorities have shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are based on two surveys: an initial one gleaning 60 responses and a second phone-based survey in which 117 executives took part.
Five revenue cycle trends health system executives are watching:
1. Survey respondents are most confident that technology will help solve coding/billing and accounts receivable problems. Their confidence is lower in technology's ability to address problems in price transparency and ACO requirements for shared savings.
2. Specifically in regard to price transparency, many respondents said regulatory changes are needed in addition to technology to address issues around healthcare billing.
3. Health system executives plan to increase telehealth as a revenue stream. They also want to allow more employees to work remotely and use more technology to monitor revenue cycle data.
4. During the COVID-19 pandemic, executives said their revenue cycle teams learned to be more flexible in operating and implementing technology. They also became more attuned to revenue cycle management problems in general, the survey found.
5. Health systems are focusing on front-end processes to solve revenue cycle management issues rather than waiting to meet them on the back end.
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