In Brief
Balancing growth, strategy, and sustainability
- After years of growth through acquisitions and organizational change, a nonprofit health system recognized the opportunity to improve financial performance.
- The organization implemented quick-hit, cash-driving solutions to generate revenue and successfully transform its revenue cycle operations, achieving $80M+ in increased annual cash flow.
- Leadership training and process improvement initiatives have equipped the health system with the skills and workflows to sustain high performance as the organization continues to grow.
Challenge: Sustainably improve financial performance within the revenue cycle
Amid organizational growth and an ongoing electronic health record (EHR) transformation journey, a nonprofit health system sought to assess its financial performance and identify high-impact revenue cycle management (RCM) changes that would augment other performance improvement efforts underway.
Approach: Start with quick-hit solutions, then focus on future enhancements
The organization and Huron developed a strategy centered on collaboration and interconnectivity, ensuring an open dialogue between leaders and alignment with the project’s core goals.
The teams prioritized quick wins and results that drove revenue and cash flow, identifying financial clearance, utilization review, and accounts receivable (AR) collections as focus areas. From there, they shifted to crafting long-term initiatives to boost overall revenue cycle performance and sustain enhancements.
The RCM and financial improvement road map included:
Technical and process-related workflow improvements in the revenue cycle: Together, the health system and Huron redefined revenue cycle team roles and responsibilities, supporting new workflows and integrating care access within the revenue cycle. They focused on creating a smoother handoff between the preservice and utilization management teams to deliver a more seamless patient financial experience.
More efficient metrics reporting that cascaded through all levels of management: Data reporting structures were created across all levels of RCM, providing leaders with actionable insights to improve organizational performance and promote team member development and accountability.
Leadership skills training and workshops: The team created a foundation for effective change management, which included training on leading practices for elevating culture and upskilling employees.
Sustainability and continuation: The team collaborated on a sustainability commitment that equipped leaders with tools to communicate and uphold new ways of working.
A new care access operating model: To support ongoing performance improvement, Huron provided guidance on how to design the health system’s care access operating model and eliminate gaps in scheduling processes and enable integration.
By addressing the challenge with a clear road map for short-term gains and long-term sustainability, the health system increased cash flow upfront and created a lasting impact on the organization’s revenue cycle.