Whitepapers & E-Books

When healthcare revenue cycle teams need to process more transactions than ever before, it's hard to find — and keep — great team members. Staff are under pressure to stay current with claim-submission compliance and reduce cybersecurity risks while keeping customer data secure.

So, how do healthcare organizations succeed in balancing it all? By employing strategic processes, the right healthcare payments partner, and game-changing automation. This report details how to achieve clean claims, fewer denials and faster, fuller payments.

Learnings include:

• Claim management tactics that are proven to boost staff efficiency
• Tips for saving time on claim statusing
• Ways to prioritize denials with the highest likelihood of payoff
• Results health organizations across the U.S. are experiencing with automation
• Strategies for streamlining claim management workflows using advanced automation

Revenue cycle leaders know the staffing crisis in healthcare is not limited to clinical functions; there’s also a revenue cycle staffing crisis.

Based on increasing revenue cycle work and a shortage of skilled workers, it is impossible to hire enough people or ask current employees to work harder.

It’s time to work smarter, not harder. What does working smarter in the revenue cycle mean? It means finding innovative ways to do more with less.

Download for best practices on:

 

• Developing a smarter revenue cycle and administrative strategy
• Cutting down on outdated manual processes
• Streamlining existing processes with intelligent automation

  Learn more about what intelligent automation is, how it works, which revenue cycle tasks are best automated and what the benefits are

Vendor management systems can have a positive impact on hospitals and clinics across the country. At a time when facilities everywhere are facing physician shortages and burnout, these systems help connect vulnerable patients to quality care with ease. Through a partnership, Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health improved its workflow efficiency, boosted patient satisfaction, gained valuable operational insights and increased revenue from its contract physician program.

Learnings in this report include:

• How a successful partnership of people and technology generated millions of dollars in revenue from contract provider care.
• How contract physicians can integrate into a seamless workflow.
• How better vendor management ultimately yields benefits for patients.

Today’s healthcare workers are dealing with increased financial strain. This economic pressure isn't just affecting individual workers—it's impacting the entire healthcare system, potentially compromising patient care and community health. That's why financial wellness benefits powered by earned wage access are needed now more than ever to support healthcare workers on their path to success.

New research conducted by the Harris Poll and DailyPay uncover the financial stresses impacting your frontline workers. Inform your strategy, improve patient outcomes and support the backbone of our healthcare system.

Learnings include:

• Top financial concerns affecting healthcare workers
• How these financial challenges can have a long-term impact on healthcare workers' future
• The simple change that could improve employee financial wellness

Recruiting and retaining nurses is foundational to delivering safe, high-quality patient care. Although turnover rates for staff RNs have decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems still face a myriad of staffing challenges.

This report examines those challenges in detail and offers a look into how organizations can reduce their spending on contingent staffing.

Key learnings include:

• The staffing tools that give health systems a strategic advantage
• Why contingent nursing staff aren't always more expensive than FTEs
• New models of care and how organizations can staff them effectively

Over 90% of healthcare employees are saving for retirement; however, one-third are not confident they are saving an adequate amount, according to the TIAA Institute's new report, Retirement Readiness in the Healthcare Sector. The report surveyed full-time registered nurses, physicians, surgeons and other medical and nonmedical professionals.

Retirement income security depends upon a series of decisions and actions over time — most fundamentally, the amount being saved, the investment allocation of savings, and then how to manage savings for income during retirement.

A few of the factors affecting retirement readiness are:

• Debt, particularly student loan debt
• Retirement plan leakage
• Retirement planning advice

Burnout remains a rampant problem in healthcare, posing risks to hospital staffing levels, workplace culture and finances. Physician turnover from burnout continues to cost health systems an estimated $260 million a year.

Organizations have tried a myriad of ways to safeguard their staff's well-being, but burnout rates have fallen only slightly since peak levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. As health system leaders have learned, there's no one cause or solution.

But there are specific signs to watch for that can help leaders mitigate this challenge. This guide was crafted to equip hospital leaders with a one-stop-shop tool to spot early signs of burnout among their staff, adapt and intervene.

Key learning points:

• Spot early signs of burnout and learn the five-stage progression model
• How burnout manifests differently across organizations and individuals
• Organizational factors causing burnout and specific actions to address them

Offering best-in-class family care benefits helps you attract, retain, and engage top talent.

But how can you ensure your investment meets the needs of every employee, whether their family consists of children, an elderly parent, or even a pet?

This guide to back-up care and other family benefits offers step-by-step details on:

• How to select benefits and structure your program
• What to look for in a provider
• How other leading companies are driving success at scale with back-up care

Download the guide to learn more.

How do your recruiting incentives for physicians and advanced practice practitioners stack up to peers nationwide?

Find out in this comprehensive guide, which outlines benchmarking data on starting salaries, signing bonuses, production bonuses and other incentives. The report also includes a detailed analysis of trends shaping the competitive healthcare market for recruiting physicians and APPs.

Download the report to learn:

• Key market trends affecting physician and APP recruiting
• Strategic insights to refine recruitment packages
• Best practices for establishing recruiting programs and parameters

Data indicates healthcare decision makers may be overestimating the satisfaction of their staff. Up to 43% of staff said they were at least somewhat likely to switch jobs in the next year.1

With this context, it's clear that now is not the time for healthcare leaders to take their foot off the gas when it comes to reducing burnout. CareCredit’s whitepaper, Recognizing Burnout in Healthcare Staff and Ideas for Addressing it, offers insights and potential strategies that can help improve job satisfaction and retain healthcare employees.

Key learning points:

• A high-level overview of the current state of burnout in healthcare
• Survey results that assess what employment factors staff value most
• Best practices to consider to help reduce burnout & retain employees

 

 

 

1. CareCredit Staff Burnout Survey, May 2023. CareCredit is a Synchrony solution.

At the heart of healthcare transformation, HR leaders drive organizational resilience and improve patient care through employee excellence. Becker’s Healthcare, in partnership with Bright Horizons, presents an essential guide titled “Adapting to a Dynamic Talent Market: Insights from 6 Healthcare Executives,” featuring the perspectives of six HR leaders.

Inside, you will:

• Gain direct access to the strategies and forward-thinking approaches of six prominent healthcare executives.
• Discover innovative methods in workforce development that are setting new benchmarks in the industry.
• Understand the importance of tailoring workforce initiatives to address the diverse needs of a multigenerational team.
• Learn how effective caregiver support can enhance workforce engagement and reduce turnover.

Download this guide to hear perspectives from leaders at Carilion Clinic, NewYork-Presbyterian, Ascension Wisconsin, Riverside Health, and OSF HealthCare.

Hospitals and health systems must constantly balance two high-stakes priorities: The safety, compliance, and well-being of their workforce, and the delivery of high-quality healthcare.

An ever-changing regulatory landscape makes this balance even more daunting, but HR leaders play a significant role in mastering workforce compliance, top-tier care and better outcomes for all stakeholders. This tip sheet shares five strategies to guide hospitals in successfully managing concurrent priorities.

Key learning points:

• 5 key steps to ensure a healthier, safer and more compliant workforce
• Streamlining critical employee data into HR systems
• Empowering employees to take charge of their compliance

When it comes to testing, many health systems limit their approach to focus on specific disease stages or cancer types. This strategy might be a way to fall behind as precision medicine advancements evolve.

To make personalized cancer care more accessible, organizations may consider effectively leveraging genomic testing, which can help identify potential clinical trial options and inform treatment alternatives.

This brief report outlines some ways organizations may make genomic testing more accessible to physicians and patients keeping cost-effectiveness and patient outcomes top of mind.

Key learning points:

• Designing a comprehensive genomic testing program that could expand patients' access to cutting-edge care & improve financial results
• Persistent challenges that prevent change and potential ways to address them
• Good practices to integrate genomic testing into care pathways

Health plans now have unprecedented opportunities to scale care management (CM) initiatives to improve outcomes and drive return on investment, but most are not yet integrating all their data types to transform CM.

To realize CM's full potential, health plans need technologies to reach members in a variety of ways when health events happen — with contextual awareness and personalization, as well as the ability to adapt as new information becomes available. New research also shows that health plan leaders expect CM transformation to empower their organizations to build guided health journeys, engage more members, improve efficiencies and reduce the burden on CM teams.

Read this white paper to learn more about:

• Why health plans need timely, data-driven, multi-channel engagement
• The building blocks currently available for transforming CM
• The critical next steps to starting CM transformation

Today's health plans are facing increasing member complexity, skyrocketing costs and workforce shortages that strain care management teams.

But research shows most plans lack the sophisticated digital technologies necessary to leverage more of the data they already have. Better tech can help health plans scale care management programs to better support high-risk members and proactively engage rising-risk members before they become high-risk.

Read the whitepaper to learn more about:

• How health plans can build strategic extensions of care management programs with digital tools to reach more members across all risk profiles and increase their participation.
• Why it's critical for health plans to strategically leverage more data types and harness advanced analytics to create contextual awareness that enables personalized care management.
• How health plans can optimize medical costs, reduce administrative expenses and improve outcomes with digital care management.

Traditional member portals are no longer sufficient. Rising healthcare costs, heightened member expectations and rapid technology advancements demand a new approach to the member experience.

In response, leading payers are modernizing their portals — shifting from antiquated self-service tools to advanced, personalized platforms that enable their organizations to deliver on new non-negotiables and drive actions that matter.

This white paper offers key insights from leaders at Highmark Health, SCAN Health Plan, Santa Clara Family Health Plan and tech organizations, who outlined the benefits of modern member portals and how they improve member experiences while advancing key business objectives.

Key takeaways:

• The growing limitations of existing member portals across the payer industry
• New, non-negotiable features of a modernized portal and how it benefits businesses and members
• Strategies to quickly and effectively transform your organization's member experience

Like many large payers, our client experienced significant growing pains over the years while manually keeping up with evolving laws and regulations. "We grew up doing what had to be done," the organization's corporate compliance officer said. "The laws have come so fast and so furiously. But it siloed us and created a lot of duplicative work."

Partnering with ProviderTrust allowed the client to fully automate their exclusion monitoring and primary source verification processes. By switching to an automated solution, the client could quickly identify and address gaps in their prior manual monitoring and verification efforts.

Download this white paper to learn how partnering with ProviderTrust allows this client to:

• Break down silos between departments with a centralized hub for credential and exclusion data.
• Consolidate vendor usage with a single solution for credential verification and exclusion monitoring.
• Fully automate their monitoring processes, eliminating partial or inaccurate matches.
• Prevent payments to ineligible providers or vendors with immediate alerts and ongoing sanction and exclusion monitoring.
• Ensure audit-readiness with organizationwide compliance oversight.

Large health systems, academic medical centers, community hospitals and outpatient facilities all face similar challenges — rising labor costs, declining reimbursements and pressure to redesign care delivery, among others.

These many disparate challenges often require customized solutions. Achieving success across aims is increasingly difficult in the absence of a cohesive operational framework.

Read this report to learn:

• 3 principles of exceptional operational performance
• How to improve both staff efficiency and patient flow
• The 7 elements of a successful operational system integration

Healthcare providers and payers are awash in vast amounts of data, making it challenging to determine which insights truly matter.

When organizations can leverage the data that directly affects them, they can advance patient care, optimize resources and positively influence their bottom line. Download this report to learn how to navigate the healthcare data ecosystem for healthcare performance improvement.

Insights include:

• How to identify data that can help your organization
• How AI can support speed-to-value improvement
• How to transform data into actionable insights

Innovation and patient experience are top priorities for healthcare leaders — and increasingly, technologies like artificial intelligence and automation are enabling them to address both issues at once. Achieving a balance between technology and the "human touch," however, can prove challenging.

In a recent Becker’s Healthcare advisory call sponsored by RevSpring, healthcare leaders discussed how their organizations are deploying technology solutions that keep empathy and the patient experience top of mind.

Advisory call attendees included senior finance, strategy and digital leaders from hospitals and health systems across the country, including Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health, and Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System.

Some of the key takeaways:

• The patient experience has expanded beyond clinical interactions.
• Understanding patient preferences is critical to providing a positive patient experience.
• Healthcare organizations are striving to blend technology with the human touch.
• Respecting patient preferences on a consistent basis is a hallmark of leading healthcare organizations.

When hospital staff face workplace aggression 1.17 times per 40 hour shift, bolstering safety and security measures is paramount. Some systems ― like CA based Kaiser Permanente, Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System and Searcy, Ark.-based Unity Health ― are leveraging new tools to reduce the threat of workplace violence and catastrophic risk with improved weapon screening systems.

This whitepaper details how artificial intelligence-powered weapon and contraband screening can improve safety for staff, patients and the community. You'll learn how this approach enables screening consistency and fidelity with key processes and controls.

Download to learn more about:

• Elements of an innovative weapon detection system and how to identify one that meets your organization's operational requirements, needs and culture
• How to leverage data points generated by weapon detection systems to maximize value
• Considerations for cost and return on investment

Facing frequent no-shows, high staff turnover and resource draining, paper-based processes in patient access, Wayne HealthCare was due for a digital upgrade.

Read the case study to learn how using EngageCare self-service technology to transition administrative and financial tasks to patients helped Wayne improve patient safety, reduce no-shows and increase staff efficiency.

Download a copy of the case study to learn how Wayne:

• Reduced denials 80 percent
• Decreased no-shows and cancellations, saving revenue
• Reallocated staff and eliminated need to fill 5 vacant positions

Supply chain inefficiencies cost hospitals $25.7 billion annually. With the right strategies, however, supply chain teams can not only lower supply chain and healthcare costs but also serve as a direct bridge to improved care quality.

At the Becker's Supply Chain Leadership Virtual Forum, six healthcare supply chain experts discussed their systems' supply chain transformation efforts and shared how supply chains can become a strategic asset when bolstered by the power of data, standardization and process efficiency. This report offers seven takeaways from the discussion.

Key learnings:

• How labor challenges are affecting supply chain teams
• Top priorities for healthcare supply chain leaders in 2022
• The key to successful supply chain transformations
  
  

Learn how we worked with this fully-integrated healthcare system to deliver a whole-person approach to care for its employees and spouses with chronic conditions.

Results include:

• A coordinated experience across conditions for people living with both diabetes and hypertension Multiyear impact on clinical diabetes measures, including reduced HbA1c levels and a fewer hypoglycemic readings
• Measurable impact on systolic and diastolic blood pressure rates among those with uncontrolled hypertension
• Reduced spending incurred through medical care, emergency room visits and pharmacy costs associated with managing chronic conditions, resulting in a positive ROI

Before COVID-19, the opioid epidemic was the nation's most consequential public health threat. The pandemic has magnified the impact of the opioid crisis on communities as unemployment, homelessness and behavioral health disorder rates soar.

Learn how eight organizations across the country have used technology and collaboration to achieve the following:

• 61 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions
• 32 percent reduction in opioid deaths
• 50 percent decrease in emergency department visits for patients with high utilization patterns
• $34 million in cost savings

This downloadable whitepaper will cover:

• Four proven strategies for addressing the opioid epidemic on an organizational and community level
• Statewide efforts to reduce opioid prescribing and use, including implementation of seven best practices for prescription opioids
• How collaboration helped achieve measurable results outside opioids — including decreased ED visits and significant cost savings

Compliance with information security standards doesn't guarantee that your systems are secure. Without proactive measures, hospitals and health systems remain vulnerable to evolving cyber threats that can disrupt operations and compromise patient care.

In this whitepaper, two cybersecurity experts discuss how health systems can take a more proactive approach to mitigate cyber threats and create a safer environment for clinicians and patients.

Key learnings:

• Why compliance alone isn't enough to protect your systems
• Actionable steps to strengthen your security and safeguard data
• How AI and partnerships enhance threat detection and response

This whitepaper explores the evolution of utilization management (UM) in healthcare, examining the mounting pressures faced by both payers and providers. It analyzes the impact of rising healthcare costs, increased regulatory requirements and evolving patient expectations in a value-based care landscape. The paper emphasizes the need for innovative solutions to balance patient care with the realities of a strained healthcare system.

Three key learning points from the white paper include:

• An overview of the challenges healthcare providers experience due to manual, time-consuming processes.
• Why integrating technology, such as AI and automation, can streamline UM workflows and enhance decision-making.
• Why collaboration between payers and providers is essential for successful UM implementation.

As healthcare professionals continue to face tight workflows and increasing demands, small changes in back-end systems can yield major gains.

However, most hospitals still overlook a critical aspect that can reduce the burden on both clinical staff and IT teams: the printing infrastructure within their EHR systems. This brief report offers leaders practical tips on how to address inefficiencies to improve resource management, enhance security and streamline workflows.

Key learning points:

• The value of reducing print-related tasks
• Enhance security and reduce risks of HIPAA violations
• Minimize wasted time and resources

Increasingly, healthcare leaders are recognizing better access to aggregated, integrated healthcare information has the power to transform the patient experience. This information can empower people to take charge of their well-being and enable providers to deliver higher-quality care with less administrative burden.

To learn more about the current state of healthcare interoperability and what the future holds, Becker's Healthcare recently spoke with two interoperability experts from Oracle Health. This report contains insights from those conversations.

Learnings include:

• What interoperability looks when 'built right'
• Opportunities to address clinician cognitive burden through improved interoperability
• Why patients need greater access to their health data

The rise of telehealth, healthcare-at home and other remote care options is bringing greater flexibility to health systems and patients, who often prefer to receive care outside of the hospital. However, home-based care that relies on various connected devices introduces increased cybersecurity threats.

Becker's Healthcare recently spoke with three network and security experts about how healthcare leaders can identify and address cybersecurity risks as the device and delivery ecosystem grows.

Key learnings include:

• How to counter cyber threats with a layered security approach
• The commons issues associated with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies
• The security advantages of company-owned device programs

Healthcare organizations' data significantly influences decisions, procedures and revenue. While accurate clinical documentation and streamlined data transfer are crucial, they often go awry.

To minimize the impact on billing, reimbursement, quality reporting and patient care, payers must aim for greater specificity and exchange of healthcare data.

Download new research to discover:

• How precise documentation helps to improve the bottom line
• Why losing data specificity affects patients at individual and population levels
• The benefits of feedback loops between revenue teams and care providers

An overreliance on traditional programs is undermining payers' efforts to help members achieve their healthcare goals.

This new report, produced by IDC Custom Solutions, shows how to increase ROI with AI-powered care management:

Four key takeaways:

• Close care gaps: Make things smoother and cut out the inefficiencies.
• Adhere to quality measures: Enhance the quality of service for better results.
• Boost member engagement and retention: Create solid relationships to bolster loyalty.
• Get the risk scores right: Make informed decisions with precise data.

Strengthen your programs with a strategy that covers all bases.

The status quo call center heavily depends on labor-intensive processes, disjointed systems, and a phone call-based approach. These are all elements that collectively add to the already significant administrative strain on call center agents.

In response, many health systems and hospitals have turned to AI to fundamentally change how work gets done.

From scheduling to appointment reminders to registration, this guide shares how organizations are leveraging AI to personalize patient engagement at scale, automate manual workflows on behalf of staff, and empower caregivers to work at top-of-license.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• The hidden cost of call center inefficiencies
• Best practices for improving patient access that doesn’t require hiring more staff
• How North Kansas City Hospital & Meritas Health and MUSC Health use AI-powered automation to drive new patient appointments and close care gaps

Optimizing patient flow and staffing is challenging — patient needs vary, demand fluctuates and resources are constrained and hard to predict. As a result, hospitals are often in a reactive state, forced to resolve bottlenecks and patient flow issues as they arise.

Front-line teams are the ones that are forced to carry the burden by pulling off daily heroics to address the ever-changing demands, only to repeat the cycle again the next day. But health systems around the nation are breaking out of this cycle with AI-powered innovation that improves nursing coverage, patient access and EBITDA.

This whitepaper contains a number of real-world case studies, including:

• How UCHealth (Aurora, Colo.) decreased overall time to admit by 16%
• How a leading Florida health system reduced average length-of-stay by 13 hours
• Hendrick Health system reduced order to discharge time by 22% and ED boarding Time by 49%

Artificial intelligence is transforming virtual sitting and telehealth through computer vision. Computer vision, a type of AI that hospitals use to help monitor patients and their surroundings, can vastly improve patient and staff safety. The technology remotely identifies behavior, risk indicators and other patterns in real-time. It then triggers an alert to on-site staff to take action.

Clinical teams are using it to augment virtual sitting and make fast, informed decisions that lead to better outcomes. This is especially important as hospital and health system leaders strive for care excellence amid regular staffing shortfalls.

Download the guide to learn:

• The top three AI use cases in virtual care forward-looking CIOs
• How to combat staff shortages and better support your clinical team with AI-driven virtual care
• How to think about healthcare privacy and compliance in an AI world

 

The expansion of network-connected technology in clinical environments has also dramatically increased health systems' cybersecurity risk, along with the potential threats to patient safety and continuity of care. Yet many organizations struggle to keep pace with their evolving needs. Many healthcare cybersecurity programs do not scale or adapt to the needs of medical device inventories and risk factors. Relying solely on external guidance like federal regulation will not be enough to deliver responsive, measurable results from cybersecurity projects. Adopting governance that is tailored to the unique needs of a healthcare organization may sound like an intuitive approach, but health systems face significant challenges to achieving this goal.

Learnings:

• What information do health systems need to build the right cybersecurity strategy.
• Where health systems can turn to source best practices for developing processes.
• How health systems can apply strategy and process to establish a system of continuous improvement.

Demands on IT service desks in healthcare have grown immensely over the last five years. They're supporting higher volumes of applications, a constant stream of new technologies and myriad new devices that require IT maintenance. At the same time, the resources, headcount and budget provided to IT are constricting.

This report examines how automation can optimize IT operations to support staff and how, with the right platform, IT service management modernization can benefit the entire enterprise.

Read this short report to learn:

• Types of solutions CIOs should seek to tackle IT challenges and ease resource constraints
• Best practices for identifying where AI can most effectively transform operations and improve efficiency
• Ways IT teams can use conversational AI to lessen the burden of service requests

Montage Health had already transitioned from analog to digital with its EHR implementation but still struggled with a disjointed and inconsistent patient experience.

In 2021, they partnered with Notable to unify the system’s patient experience.

Since then, they have expanded their use of AI across the system to improve healthcare operations, including care gap closure and referrals. In doing so, they have transformed staff productivity, improved the quality and experience of care, and secured the financial health of their organization.

This case study explores their two-year automation journey and learnings along the way, including:

• Real patient and staff outcomes, like creating 13 FTE capacity
• Driving $2M in annual gross value through revenue capture and cost savings
• How they proactively engaged patients to scheduling overdue care, closing - more than 14% of care gaps

When new challenges arise in the constantly evolving health system landscape, they bring opportunities for growth and improvement.

In a recent series of interviews with marketing and C-suite leaders from Academic Medical Centers and Mid-Sized to Large Health Systems, Healthgrades sought to understand healthcare leaders’ biggest organizational challenges, concerns, and opportunities.

We heard firsthand from leaders about the real issues they face daily, such as the impact of chronic turnover on health system growth strategy and whether AI has entered the discussion. Staff shortages, tight budgets, and increasing patient volumes are also some of the many themes that emerged from our interviews.

Healthgrades gathered diverse perspectives spanning a range of functions and senior levels — and they face many similar challenges. Learn what's keeping these hospital leaders up at night, and how you can face these hurdles for better operational success and patient outcomes.

The world is in an era of "more." People increasingly expect personalization when companies interact with them — and healthcare is no exception. But the sheer amount of data healthcare organizations manage makes this more of a challenge for the sector relative to other industries.

However, leading health systems are demonstrating that it's possible to hyper-personalize engagement with patients, suppliers and other stakeholders at scale.

This whitepaper covers how a connected platform drives improved outcomes, productivity gains and personalized engagement.

Key learning points:

• Defining what CRM is and what it actually means for healthcare
• Building a health engagement platform
• What to choose in a CRM & answers to FAQs on integration

As leading hospitals and health systems strive to meet increased patient engagement demands, many are using tools that leverage artificial intelligence to empower and engage patients.

But concerns around AI tools persist, as do untapped opportunities for additional use cases. To learn more about how health systems are leveraging AI and its impact on patient engagement, Becker's Healthcare and Zoom recently conducted a survey of healthcare leaders. In this whitepaper, you will learn:

• How both healthcare providers and patients are actively using AI-based engagement tools.
• Why healthcare organizations say AI has been a "win" for providers and patients alike.
• How AI can be applied to health and wellness education for patients.
• Which concerns about healthcare AI continue to persist.
• How to chart the path forward with AI and patient engagement.

For Sanjeev Arora, MD, distinguished professor of medicine at University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, barriers to care in his community fueled innovation that has altered diagnosis and treatment trajectories for many patients — not just locally, but across the globe.

This white paper details how Dr. Arora founded Project ECHO, a tech-enabled learning model that facilitates clinician training and mentorship in under-resourced areas to scale clinical best practices, amplify scarce resources and engage in case-based learning.

Download the paper to learn how this health equity initiative has:

• Grown from a single hepatitis C program to a learning framework that spans multiple disciplines with 1,200 partners in nearly 200 countries
• Demonstrated significant strides in care quality and access
• Is expected to evolve given developments in AI

Given the breadth and depth of potential use cases, one thing is clear – more and more people will find themselves working in environments where ML plays a critical role. And thanks to the emergence of low-code and no-code software, ML is no longer the exclusive preserve of programmers, data scientists, and people who paid attention in math class. More of us can – and will – be involved in developing and deploying practical ML solutions.

This eGuide will help you understand:

 

• The key concepts behind ML and common applications
• How it’s becoming more useful to people at all levels of organizations

 

At virtually every stage of a patient’s wellbeing, different forms of technology and software support the expansion of better healthcare. As the reliance on technology grows, ensuring that these lifesaving systems don’t break under the strain is imperative.

  To keep operations running smoothly, healthcare IT professionals must perform regular and exhaustive testing. Fortunately, the introduction of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) has made testing easier to deliver.

In this eBook from Keysight Technologies, you will discover  

• How automation can improve workflow management to help physicians and patients alike
• How AI-driven test automation helps your EMR become more interoperable and user-friendly
• Six critical tasks that can be optimized with robotic process automation
• The importance of testing both on-site and wearable medical devices

 

Please fill out the form to download the eBook.

Hospitals and health systems face growing pressure to improve security and compliance standards, not just for employees, but for third-party vendors as well. Many providers still rely on letters of attestation for vendor credentialing, leaving facilities vulnerable to inconsistencies in immunization records, background checks and qualifications.

These gaps pose serious risks to patient safety, operational continuity and legal compliance.

To mitigate these risks, leaders must shift from passive reliance on vendor attestations to active verification methods. This whitepaper outlines how to strengthen your vendor credentialing program, providing actionable insights to safeguard patient care and protect your organization.

Key learning points:

• Identifying hidden risks in vendor credentialing processes
• Best practices for enforcing compliance and ensuring accountability
• Strategies to mitigate operational, financial, and patient safety risks through more rigorous vendor oversight

Many health systems face challenges in streamlining supply chain management processes to enhance patient care and impact their bottom line.

Explore this new report to see how Florence, S.C.-based McLeod Health is using cloud-based technology to create more efficiency, control their inventory and gain actionable insights to improve revenue.

Key learnings include:

• How data can drive organizational speed and agility
• How to improve supply chain and clinical team productivity
• How to make informed purchasing decisions with automated reports

Download the report today to see how you can leverage data to achieve supply chain excellence.

Struggling with rising healthcare costs and inefficient procurement processes? See how healthcare procurement leaders are leveraging AI to boost supply chain efficiency and savings in this new report based on new findings from a survey of more than 170 senior healthcare leaders.

You'll learn:

• The top 10 healthcare supply chain challenges.
• How AI is transforming procurement for 74% of healthcare with real-world examples.
• Best practices from the 92% of organizations achieving positive results with AI.
• Where human oversight remains crucial.

The average cybersecurity breach in healthcare costs $11 million, and recent breaches have disrupted patient care and even led some physicians to close their practices.

Realizing the potentially devastating impacts of cyberattacks is the first step in being prepared to fend off threats that can affect healthcare providers big and small.

This new step-by-step guide puts you in the driver seat with actionable insights and tips on what your organization can do to stay safe.

You'll learn:

• How to assess and address vulnerabilities at your organization
• How to create an efficient and viable response plan
• How to identify next steps that will keep you safe in the future

From outdated systems to staffing and financial pressure, rural hospitals face many challenges.

Hospital finance teams often have to do more with less, dealing with less-than-ideal workflows and delays in reporting. Many technologies today can help overcome and even resolve long-standing problems for healthcare finance teams. Improving financial processes through automation, creating efficiencies in reporting and assessing key performance indicators can be part of a hospital’s improved financial operation.

Read this case study to learn how Windsor, Vt.-based Mt. Ascutney Hospital leveraged technology to improve their finance department processes.

Learnings include:

• How simplified cost reporting help support better problem solving
• What processes the hospital streamlined and how those changes affected revenue
• Why automated data tracking is the key to success for multiple departments

With more than 40% of hospitals still losing money, technology innovation booming and payment models shifting, healthcare CFOs are under complex pressures and have more visibility than ever.

This playbook outlines the key strategies finance leaders need to adapt to these changes. It details how to bring the necessary level of insight and analysis to this evolving role and drive business forward without sacrificing patient care and efficiency.

You'll learn:

• Key drivers of change in healthcare financial management
• Four considerations for financial leaders evaluating their readiness
• Why integrating clinical data into financial systems is no longer optional

This report, based on a survey of 210 healthcare employees responsible for claims management, assessed the extent of denied claims, the causes, and the efforts to mitigate denials.

The results indicate:

• Denials continue to increase.
• Providers say authorizations and incorrect information on claims are driving the rise in denials.
• Providers want to prevent denials versus just managing them.

Sample findings:

• 38% of respondents acknowledged that 10% or more of claims are denied.
• 46% of respondents say that missing or inaccurate data is one of the top three reasons for denials.
• 65% of respondents say that submitting "clean" claims is more challenging than before the pandemic.

Read the full report to see where the trends are leading.

The recent expansion of ASC-covered procedures presents a dual landscape of opportunities and challenges. As patient volume surges, so do billing complexities, audits and other revenue cycle management hurdles.

This guide offers three actionable strategies for ASC administrators and revenue cycle executives to proactively address these issues.

You will learn:

• Technologies ASCs can use to augment their existing RCM infrastructure
• Guidelines to address increased scrutiny and compliance requirements
• Three key steps ASCs can take now to navigate the evolving landscape effectively

Explore the critical distinctions between recourse and non-recourse patient financing, highlighting the benefits of recourse financing in maintaining patient relationships and enhancing both financial performance and compliance within healthcare organizations.

Key Takeaways:

• Control Over Patient Experience: Recourse financing allows healthcare providers to maintain direct relationships with patients, ensuring continuity in care and fostering trust throughout the financial journey.
• Risk Management and Revenue Clarity: By assuming responsibility for collections, healthcare organizations can enhance revenue predictability and streamline operational processes while safeguarding patient satisfaction.
• Compliance and Accountability: Emphasizing recourse patient financing aligns with evolving regulatory standards, promoting transparency and protecting vulnerable patients from potentially exploitative practices seen in non-recourse options.

As patients can struggle to pay for healthcare services due to out-of-pocket (OOP) costs, practices may be limited in their ability to provide care and facilitate optimal patient outcomes. This eBook draws from various CareCredit studies, revealing the average OOP costs of several care/services and how it may impact the patients decision-making behavior, as well as how and when discussions about costs should happen with their providers and the payment options available to them.

Key learnings Include:

• The barriers rising out-of-pocket costs create and how providers can address them
• How an industry specific cost analysis can help you better understand patient concerns
• How to have productive conversations about care costs and the importance of when you have them in the patient journey
  
  

When it comes to financial clearance, healthcare organizations face mounting challenges, namely more rejections, denials and bad debt related to self-pay after insurance. Add that to debilitating strains on the workforce and you've got a complex dilemma.

Rather than focusing on one piece of the puzzle, top-performing health systems are creating a holistic patient financial clearance strategy. This strategy includes leveraging front-end revenue cycle automation for results that make a difference.

In this report, readers will learn:

• How Cincinnati Children's rebuilt its financial clearance process
• The proven tactics that support a holistic financial clearance strategy
• Where workflow automation can drive the biggest payoff

Ready to enhance patient care, improve administrative burden, and strengthen your hospital yield? Artificial intelligence is a great tool for hospital revenue cycle management if you know how to use it. This guide will take you from novice to know-how, teaching you how to best integrate AI into your workflow for truly meaningful results for your organization.

Inside, you will learn:

• The different types of AI tools and how best to apply them to the beginning, middle, and end stages of your RCM workflow.
• Plus, the key insight many hospitals miss when attempting to integrate AI—and how it can lead to a significant boost in yield.

In the last five years, Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System has embarked on a journey to expand its surgical capacity. Not only has the system successfully increased volume, but it has also gained market dominance and boosted top-line revenue — all without adding more staff or overtime hours.

Download this case study to learn more about the system's financial recovery strategy, which has helped them achieve:

• 30% increase in da Vinci procedure case volume from 2022-23
• 90% increase in colorectal surgery volume since 2018
• $3 million increase in operating margin

Medicare and Medicaid administration can be nightmarishly complicated with interconnected programs and requirements. Even for those well-versed in the fundamental rules, hidden pitfalls can lead to significant financial gains or losses, often in the millions.

The silver lining is that proactive steps can be taken to safeguard revenue and optimize reimbursement. This tip sheet presents healthcare finance leaders with five practical strategies to attain excellence in government reimbursement, encompassing: 

• Fundamental pathways to follow for financial success
• Tactical approaches to ensure ongoing compliance
• Proven methods to maximize reimbursement potential

Selling a medical practice can be a difficult process to navigate. Without the right strategies and team in place, owners will likely leave substantial money on the table. This whitepaper outlines how owners can avoid this common mistake and highlights considerations when evaluating potential buyers. These concepts are brought to life in a two-part case study that showcases how an owner was able to increase a physician’s post-sale, after-tax net worth by 77%.

Key learnings:  

• How practice owners can best position themselves in the market with a strategic buyer or private equity (PE) platform
• The value that an investment banker-led marketed process brings vs a non-marketed process
• Strategies to maximize personal wealth for physician owners through pre-sale and post-sale wealth planning

 

Beyond clinical staff, labor shortages are putting significant pressure on the revenue cycle function at hospitals and health systems, leading to negative consequences on the bottom line and for patient engagement. 

This report uncovers findings from a survey of 200 employees responsible for staffing the revenue cycle function at provider organizations, demonstrating how chronic staff shortages of non-clinical staff affect the revenue cycle at their organization. Before the pandemic, the situation was concerning. Now, it's unsustainable.

Download the report to learn where there are opportunities to address top challenges and position your organization for long-term stability.

Sample findings: 

• 96% of respondents indicated that payer reimbursements, patient collections -- or both -- were affected by staff shortages
• More than 8 out of 10 respondents say the patient experience is worse due to staffing shortages 
• 92% of respondents say new staff members make errors that negatively affect claims

Health systems are painfully aware of the complexities of revenue cycle management and understand the need for RCM partners. In fact, 93% of health systems rely on at least one RCM partner.

But there are different reasons for pursuing RCM partnerships and very different approaches to partnership. Which approach and partners are best for your organization?

Here are insights from new research conducted with the Health Management Academy:

• 4 key reasons health systems pursue RCM partnerships
• 2 primary approaches to RCM partnership, and the key differences between them
• Factors to consider when vetting and evaluating RCM partnerships
• Why so many leading health systems are considering enterprise RCM partnerships

The key takeaway: RCM partnerships are necessary but they're not all alike. Understand the differences to make the best RCM decision for your health system.

High deductible health plans (HDHPs) have shifted the already-complex payer reimbursement burden onto the shoulders of consumers who are unprepared to bear it.

Consumers, on the one hand, need increased support to understand their bills and figure out how to pay them. On the other hand, patients with more skin in the game are becoming more demanding about the quality of their customer experience.

These changes necessitate a new patient payment model that focuses on delivering convenience and clear communication to patients, driving both quicker payments and increased patient satisfaction.

Download this whitepaper to learn:

• The current state of patient collections, with data
• How to help patients take charge of their new responsibility
• How to identify hidden coverage
• How to increase the likelihood of quick, easy payment

The economic landscape of the healthcare market has been forever altered by the COVID-19 crisis. Existing challenges have intensified, and the pace of change is accelerating, raising the bar for organizations to adapt strategically and quickly.

Download the e-book to learn more about how health leaders can ready their organization for growth with forward-thinking strategies that include:

• Meeting the consumer on their terms
• Adapting to new competition
• The growing role of strategic partnerships
• Mastering the new indicators of growth
• Tracking the spend of the health care dollar

Operating health systems and physician practices has always been hard, but COVID-19 has created extraordinary profitability challenges in 2020. Lower volumes, changing case and payer mixes and greater operating margin anxiety make revenue optimization more essential than ever.

We asked physician management and healthcare organization leaders to share their strategies for overcoming the considerable challenges of this altered landscape. They offer 10 strategies for using data and analytics to better manage capacity, coordinate care and optimize revenues, including:

• Tracking real-time practice COVID-19 volumes
• Managing productivity and modifying physician incentive compensation
• Capturing charges efficiently and accurately at the point of care
• Improving throughput across the continuum

The white paper features expert views from:

• Dennis Deruelle, MD – Executive Director of Hospital Medicine, American Physician Partners
• Andrea Funk, RN, MEd, CPHQ – Vice President of Integrated Acute Care Operations, US Acute Care Solutions
• Derick D. Perkins – Founder and Managing Partner, Metis Advisors LLC

COVID-19 has pushed healthcare delivery beyond its breaking point, heightening the urgent need for accelerated patient care, improved clinical efficiencies and secure clinical communication with real-time critical patient updates.

Before the arrival of COVID-19, specific environmental trends were challenging the healthcare industry, such as acquisitions of smaller health systems by larger health systems, clinician shortages and burnout. These trends had already created an urgent demand for clinical communication platforms (CCP) that would work securely across growing networks of diverse care provider organizations. The arrival of COVID-19 has applied untold new pressures to already strained systems.

In this white paper, you will learn about:

• The impact and cost of COVID-19 on healthcare
• How clinical collaboration platforms improved communication during COVID-19
• Where you will see cost savings from leveraging clinical collaboration platforms
• What to look for in a clinical collaboration platform in order to achieve savings
• How clinical collaboration platforms can help your organization increase efficiency and achieve return on investment

Documenting a patient's turn schedule can serve a vital function in preventing pressure injuries as well as impacting institutional risk management. A recent study which sought to understand the difference between manually documenting turns and the automatic documentation of a wearable, wireless found wireless documentation had a 165% relative increase in documentation adherence for repositioning events than traditional flowsheets.

This quick read breaks down the study's findings into digestible takeaways. Read to get insights on:

• The challenges of nursing documentation
• The power of automated documentation
• How to document a more complete history of patient mobility in the EHR

Each year, nearly 800,000 Americans die or suffer significant harm due to diagnostic errors.

This whitepaper equips healthcare leaders with insights into the key risk factors, settings most prone to diagnostic mistakes and actionable strategies to mitigate these risks. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of why emergency departments are especially vulnerable and find practical tools for self-assessment and prevention.

Key learning points:

• Overview of the prevalence and drivers of diagnostic errors
• Top categories of diagnostic errors in the ED
• Best practices and tools to reduce diagnostic errors in the ED

From risk assessment to diagnosis and treatment, several crucial factors can determine the best possible outcome for prostate cancer patients.

Three key considerations should be top of mind for physicians as they rank risk factors and determine what treatment might be suitable: How severely is cancer affecting the patient? What is the patient's life expectancy? How does the patient feel about treatment?

This new research uncovers the importance of patient preference in treatment and what treatment options align best with different risk factors.

You'll learn:

• How to create a risk hierarchy to determine the best treatment
• New treatment options and their impact on patients
• The involvement of the patient in treatment

While there isn't a "one-size-fits-all" solution to physician burnout, a variety of leadership strategies can enhance psychological safety, decrease administrative burden and lower staff turnover.

In a recent Becker's advisory call, senior executives from health systems nationwide shared key strategies they're using to enhance physician well-being and satisfaction. This whitepaper offers a summary of the discussion and features insights on:

• Identifying groups with the highest rates of burnout
• Scaling well-being initiatives systemwide
• Creative strategies to restore physicians' joy in medicine

Yale New Haven Health, Hartford HealthCare, UW Health and Illinois Bone & Joint Institute are at the forefront of transforming population health management by implementing proactive, data-driven strategies.

At Becker's 2024 CMIO Forum, leaders from these organizations discussed their innovative strategies for using EHRs to close critical gaps in care. They also shared insights into overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities during the research and pilot phases of their programs.

This whitepaper provides a summary of the discussion, featuring insights from:

• Gigi Dawood, DO, endocrinologist, UW Health (Madison, Wis.)
• Ralph Riello, PharmD, clinical pharmacy specialist, Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, Conn.)
• Stephanie Saucier, MD, cardiologist, Hartford HealthCare (Hartford, Conn.)
• Lori Siegel, MD, rheumatologist, Illinois Bone & Joint Institute (Chicago, Ill.)

What if documentation could be a simple byproduct of bedside care, rather than a monumental burden for nurses?

This dream is increasingly becoming a reality as hospitals and health systems invest in technologies that are tailor-made for nurses' needs. This whitepaper outlines how AI-based tools can significantly lighten nurses' documentation workload, allowing them to spend more time and energy on their primary calling: providing compassionate patient care.

Learn how your organization can:

• Successfully implement and gain nurses' trust in AI-driven documentation tools
• Facilitate real-time documentation for nurses
• Empower nurses with more time for direct patient care

Incremental strides have been made in combating physician burnout over the past few years. Still, the issue continues to cost the nation's healthcare system billions of dollars annually, with 36% of physicians planning to leave their organization within two years.

Last year, nearly 13,000 physicians participated in the American Medical Association's Organizational Well-Being Survey. Their responses reveal key opportunities for health system leaders to align their well-being initiatives with physicians' actual needs. This two-page report gives leaders a breakdown of the current state of physician well-being and offers insights to guide burnout prevention strategies.

Key learning points:

• The latest data on physician burnout, job satisfaction, job stress and retention
• Data-driven areas of focus to mitigate burnout and craft a strategy for long-term success
• Resources to support health systems in putting physicians' insights into action

Top healthcare leaders are leaving no stone unturned in their mission to advance patient and staff safety. This includes ensuring the highest level of cleanliness and careful handling of hospital textiles to avoid contamination, infections or other disruptions to patient care.

This checklist will help you select a healthcare linen and laundry provider that adheres to the rigorous standards set by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC). Find out if you're asking your linen provider the right questions to ensure an optimal, clean environment for everyone.

Insights include:

• Guidelines to be aware of
• Other standards and regulations to follow
• Practices to consider in delivering safety and cleanliness

Many hospitals and health systems rely on more than one communication system to support their clinical and operational workflows. With the urgent demand for clinicians and other healthcare employees to improve productivity, non-integrated communication systems impede productivity, frustrate clinicians, and negatively impact care outcomes and costs.

The 2024 State of Healthcare Collaboration survey — conducted by Becker's Healthcare and TigerConnect — aimed to better understand the communication landscape in healthcare by surveying nearly 200 clinicians and clinical leaders (including chief nursing officers and chief medical officers). This report offers a nuanced breakdown of the survey findings and includes the cumulative survey data.

Key learnings:

• What the seven types of communication inefficiencies are, and how they create communication noise
• Why many c-suite leaders are unaware of the negative impacts of communication inefficiencies at their organization
• How health system leaders can improve care delivery by identifying and addressing communication inefficiencies

Rare diseases can be difficult to recognize, which often limits patients' access to necessary care and ultimately impacts patient outcomes. Ensuring patients are connected to the best possible care starts when health systems commit to reaching the right diagnosis as soon as possible.

Becker's Healthcare recently conducted a survey with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to learn more about the treatment of rare diseases and the role of health systems' pharmacy operations.

Respondents said when it comes to identifying and treating rare disease patients, it is important for health systems to recognize there is more than one "right" approach to care. It is essential to look beyond the lens of the specialty pharmacy alone and consider more broadly what is best for patients, as well as the health system.

The results of the survey are summarized in a short but comprehensive whitepaper.

Key topics covered in this whitepaper:

• Increased education is key to improving rare disease diagnoses
• A flexible approach to administering rare disease therapies
• How the buy-and-bill model for rare disease treatments supports the Quintuple Aim
• Key requirements for optimized operational care pathways for patients with rare diseases

Leading hospitals and health systems are committed to delivering high-quality care, despite persistent financial and staffing challenges. To deliver this level of care, organizations are using transparent, actionable data to examine their performance in a holistic way and implement plans for managing quality and patient safety improvement efforts.

Key lessons:

• Objective, reliable performance data is key for benchmarking, quality improvement + more
• Culture forms the foundation of high-quality healthcare delivery
• With shared governance, team members at all levels play a role in quality initiatives
• Systems and tools help to 'hardwire' the change around new quality processes

Women today have enough to juggle without spending time in the hospital recovering from a surgical procedure. That's why outpatient providers are increasingly tapping multimodal pain management protocols and non-opioid medications to enable same-day discharges for a wide range of women’s health procedures.

Becker's ASC Review recently spoke with three experts about women's health procedures in the ASC and how innovative pain management products are transforming the patient experience. This whitepaper offers a summary of the conversation.

Key learnings:

• ERAS protocols for women's health procedures
• The benefits of same-day discharges for patients and providers
• Upcoming reimbursement changes for non-opioids like EXPAREL

Hospitals are fighting an ongoing battle against unrecognized patient deterioration, alarm fatigue, opioid-induced respiratory depression, sepsis, unplanned extubation and other preventable conditions. In this whitepaper, we will review the scope of these patient safety matters, inadequacies of current practices, the emergence of clinical surveillance and a strategy to implement continuous clinical surveillance that helps enhance patient safety and outcomes.

Key points that readers will learn include:

• The clinical and financial impact of alarm fatigue and these adverse patient conditions
• How continuous clinical surveillance is different from patient monitoring and alarm management and focuses on mitigating non-clinically actionable alerts and notifications
• Published results that hospitals have achieved with continuous clinical surveillance

Studies show that patient satisfaction and quality of care are directly linked to the long-term success of healthcare providers.

Dental practices need to collect pertinent patient data, analyze it and determine what satisfaction looks like for their patients. Next, dental practice leaders must act on this information to drive measurable improvements in the patient experience, which will ultimately support faster growth and higher revenues.

Download this exclusive four-step guide to learn how to use patient feedback to your advantage.

Insights include:

• How one large European dental group leverages patient feedback to deliver personalized coaching for dentists
• How to involve your staff in the process and improve the patient experience
• How to choose what surveys and feedback tools work for you
• How to advance your insights and create actionable items for growth

For many DSOs and dental private practices, several patient and operational challenges prevent optimal performance. Meeting patients' growing expectations is a struggle, and functions related to scheduling, revenue cycle management and IT costs are posing significant barriers to smooth operations.

Becker's Dental + DSO Review recently spoke with Sadiye Akturk, global solutions ambassador at Straumann Group DSO Global, to explore how cloud-based dental practice management technology can address the pressing challenges facing these organizations.

Learn how a cloud practice management system can:

• Make it easier to monitor performance across multiple locations and view real-time analytics.
• Increase production at your dental organization.
• Help reduce day sales outstanding.

To be successful, every DSO must strive for a strong and dynamic procurement strategy. Large rapidly growing specialty DSOs are no exception.

One multispecialty DSO with more than 180 locations was able to save about $3 million annually by executing a strategic procurement initiative that drove savings towards their bottom line and increased ordering efficiencies among their practices in the process. This was all done while maintaining physicians' and clinicians' autonomy regarding clinically sensitive items they have access to.

Download the case study below to learn how SourceClub helped this multispecialty DSO save millions and achieve success

Today's most significant business operation problem in dental offices is repetitive, consistent, and boring manual processes and tasks. DentalRobot solves this problem with its proprietary automation platform specially designed for dental practices, and its unique approach of Pre-Built Robots and Automated Workflows.

Regardless of how you built the processes in your DSO, MSO, or Group, DentalRobot provides a custom-fit automation solution that matches your current context and vision for operations and growth. We understand each specialty and its journey. We impact your organization's outcomes by rapidly automating every process from insurance verification or EOB posting to Accelerated Patient Scheduling or Customized Treatment Plan Follow-Ups.