With inflation soaring and pandemic-era aid coming to an end, many industries and Americans have been struggling to thrive in a post-pandemic economy. The U.S. healthcare system is no stranger to such victims—some of the largest in the country posted massive net losses in the first quarter of 2022. E.g, caesar forever recorded a net loss $961 million in the first quarter, and promoteThe net loss is $884.7 million.
It doesn’t look like these income woes will stop anytime soon.Nearly half of U.S. health systems and physician groups are missing 2022 revenue goals, according to a new report from Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) firm R1 RCM Share via email. For this report, R1 RCM commissioned Censuswide to conduct an online survey of 205 CFOs and revenue cycle VPs from large U.S. health systems and physician groups, collecting responses in June.
When respondents were asked to choose the financial health of their organization that they were most concerned about, the top three choices were increased costs, recession risk, and declining profit margins.
Clinical and operational deficiencies due to healthcare workforce shortages are considered major issues affecting healthcare organizations’ profits. Respondents said the most pressing issues for their organizations included data security threats, price transparency compliance issues, reduced patient volumes due to the Covid-19 surge, value-based payment navigation, due to patient acumen and supply chain delays.
The labor shortage not only hurts clinical staffing levels, but also affects the executive branch. Forty-eight percent of executives surveyed said their organization’s RCM or billing department was facing a severe shortage, 34% reported a moderate shortage, and 10% reported a mild shortage. Only 8 percent of respondents said their organization had adequate staffing in their RCM or billing department.
“While deferred care is rebounding after two years of the pandemic, overall hospital business remains lower than it was three years ago,” said Gary Long, chief commercial officer at R1 RCM. “Additionally, as patients return to their deferred options, Sexual services, labour shortages – especially during the revenue cycle – are impacting financial operations. The ongoing cost of recruiting, hiring and training workers with the skills needed to run the health system revenue cycle is currently unaffordable.”
One of the report’s most harrowing findings, Long said, was that all respondents said stress in the RCM department negatively affected the patient experience. Respondents said they have seen these pressures lead to delays in care, long wait times for scheduling and customer service calls, and patient billing errors due to a lack of experienced staff.
“A poor financial experience can be frustrating and disappointing for patients, no matter what kind of care they receive,” Long noted.
To address labor shortages affecting healthcare RCMs and billing departments, respondents said their organizations would improve by adopting automation (56%), expanding employee benefits and/or compensation (51%), and collaborating with RCMs Optimize partner companies (44%).
A key action healthcare organizations must take is to implement automation in their RCM processes to free employees from manual tasks, Long claims. That will help mitigate the negative impact of labor shortages on the patient experience, at least when it comes to billing, he said.
“The revenue cycle can require extensive data entry, resubmission of claims assessments and reprocessing appeals,” he said. “Artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation and rules engines can generate revenue and reduce costs, and are examples of technologies that enhance your operations, enabling suppliers and employees to focus on higher-value work.”
Photo: Baris-Ozer, Getty Images
