Revenue generation and preservation for hospitals and large medical practices are critical issues to solve, and a reactive approach is to cut spending. But creative margin improvement is driven by more than lowering costs. Business intelligence and data analytics can uncover opportunities to place highly skilled professionals and improve revenue capture and savings by providing multiple measurable benefits.
This article explores four critical business strategies healthcare organizations should use to protect their profits and improve revenue recovery. Revenue cycle solutions, physician placement, managed services, and predictive staff scheduling are effective strategies to help health systems achieve their financial goals.
Revenue Cycle Solutions
Alignment of quality measures, data accuracy, and revenue integrity are crucial in any healthcare setting. However, many organizations struggle with where to start and implement change to meet these initiatives.
Revenue Cycle Solutions simplifies processes, boosts efficiency, and enhances patient outcomes. Streamlining revenue cycle eliminates the likelihood of billing errors and allows providers to spend more time focusing on patient care. Optimal clinical care, data quality, and proper reimbursement are intrinsically linked to efficient documentation practices. Proven solutions are led by Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) RN professionals, CDI Health Information Management (HIM) professionals, and providers who focus on enhancing documentation practices.
Revenue cycle solutions support the bottom-line through:
- Identification of cost-savings opportunities
- Improvements to operating margins by aligning front-end physician practice management with back-end billing
- Exceptional patient care
Permanent and Locums Physician Placements
Staff shortages can cost organizations and cause treatment delays, long wait times, and physician burnout. A Physician Solutions partner helps organizations retain focus on patient care by handling placements, licensing, credentials, and clinical support.
In the 2023 Physician Billing Report, AMN Healthcare found that the average billing amount to commercial payors is $3.8 million for all physicians and advanced practitioners. Physicians determine or strongly influence how the healthcare dollar is spent through the services they provide and other activities. Therefore, having the right physician when needed can help generate revenue.
Dedicated professionals are needed to recruit doctors during critical staffing gaps. Whether the need is for locum tenens staffing or permanent physician placement, the right partner addresses physician staffing needs across a variety of practice settings to help meet financial, operational, and patient care goals.
A proven physician recruitment approach includes:
- A thorough consultation to evaluate the opportunity and gauge the best fit
- Deep pool of candidates in a variety of physician specialties
- Comprehensive candidate vetting and screening
- A high search-completion ratio
Managed Services and Analytics Program
A Managed Services Program (MSP) handles the entire recruitment and deployment lifecycle, optimizing core and contingent talent to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve patient and provider experiences.
Unlike a traditional MSP, a key component of our Managed Services and Analytics Program (MSAP) model is conducting a Workforce Analysis that takes a deep dive into the client’s data and recommends strategies to optimize their labor mix. Integrating analytics with a managed services approach helps to inform healthcare leaders on strategic workforce planning and decision making. MSAP models are flexible, allowing organizations to retain control of staffing or having the service provider manage the process.
An effective MSAP approach brings together people, processes, and technologies to deliver better care. It begins with an analysis of the complete range of core and contingent talent, clinical and non-clinical staff. From there, we recommend technologies for your specific situation that support key processes, such as vendor management, scheduling logistics, telehealth, and language interpretation.
An MSAP simplifies and streamlines:
- Management of vendors, agencies, and contracts
- Candidate recruitment, selection, interviewing, and onboarding
Predictive Scheduling and Data Analytics
Staffing shortages can often be mitigated by having a holistic approach to staff scheduling. This approach requires alignment from all areas of a health system. Organizations need a flexible solution to manage staffing across the entire enterprise, from traditional nursing units to specialty areas and outpatient environments.
There are tools available that can predict staffing needs, improve schedule accuracy, and detect understaffed areas. These solutions allow resources to be viewed at the enterprise level for a more objective and strategic approach to placing staff that benefits the entire system.
There are predictive enterprise scheduling tools that use proprietary algorithms to forecast staffing needs starting 120 days (about 4 months) before the shift. Updated weekly, predictions pass through the staffing matrices for each unit/service area, identifying predicted patient demand versus staff supply. These predictions also fuel open shift management, cost-effectively increasing fill rates as shifts approach.
Measurable benefits include:
- Better core staff schedules (fewer cancelled shifts, core staff floating)
- Improved budgeting and resource planning
- Reduction of “in-the-moment” staffing decisions and critical needs
Let’s Partner to Achieve Your Goals
AMN Healthcare can help you create new income sources and ensure financial stability as you create more access to care and expand the reach of care to your community and beyond. From talent to training to technology, we have the team and solutions to help you achieve your financial and care goals.
Learn about a client success with revenue recovery solutions by downloading our case study. For more information, visit our website at AMNHealthcare.com or contact us at client.services@AMNHealthcare.com.
This article was brought to you by:
