From Olive AI announcing it is shutting down, to Tenet's CEO calling payer denials "excessive and inappropriate," here are eight revenue cycle management updates Becker's reported in October:
1. Olive AI, a healthcare RCM company, is selling off the last of its units to Waystar and Humata Health and shutting down.
2. Tenet Healthcare CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said the Dallas-based, for-profit system is concerned about the "degree of denial activity that [they] see from some of the health plans."
"We think it's excessive and inappropriate," he said on the company's Oct. 30 third-quarter earnings call.
3. Conifer Health Solutions saw net operating revenues of $315 million in the third quarter of 2023, down from $333 million posted in the same period in 2022, according to Dallas-based parent company Tenet's financial report.
4. Errors in patient access, such as eligibility or missing prior authorization, is the top reason for initial payer denials, according to an Oct. 17 report from Akasa, a revenue cycle firm that uses artificial intelligence.
5. An increasing rate in claims denials is once again having the most significant effect on hospital and health system revenue cycles, according to Kaufman Hall.
6. Waystar, a healthcare payment technology provider, filed for a proposed IPO.
7. Chillicothe, Ohio-based Adena's "win-win" RCM partnership benefits the health system and employees, CEO Jeff Graham told Becker's.
8. Optum is hiring more than 800 employees from Waukesha, Wis.-based ProHealth Care and will begin managing the health system's revenue cycle management, information technology, informatics, analytics and inpatient care management.