Article talks about hospital business offices Essays

Article talks about hospital business offices Essays Article talks about hospital business offices Paper Article talks about hospital business offices Paper Essay Topic: Talk This article talks about hospital business offices and the need for them to think like loan management teams of local banks and credit unions especially when collecting revenues from patients. This strategy will then aid hospitals to increase their cash collections as well as improve the financial experiences of the patients. This is significantly important today as the number of patients who shoulder their own medical expenses are on the rise. In fact, sixteen percent of patients who are insured have outstanding balances that are greater than 500 dollars. According to research, less than 2% of the total patients’ balances are collected before or upon discharge and of the balances that are 500 dollars and above, less than 8% are paid in full and this accounts for about 66% of business office patient collections. There is a need, therefore, to focus on two actions namely: prioritizing actions according to the expected cash potential and to think of the return on investment (ROI). An account with a larger balance does not equate to it being a valuable account. Accounts with greater expected cash value, therefore, necessitate a more intensive collection effort. As such, the author lists 3 operating priorities for business office preparations namely: (1) use healthcare specific predictive models as this will enable management to focus on the most valuable accounts in the most efficient manner, (2) employ multiple collection processes depending on the account cash value and the return on investment and (3) implement new reporting Theme The general theme of the article is to provide new information to improve the processes of the hospital business office. Point of View The point of view is factual and the author’s points are credible and convincing. Furthermore, the author provides a clear and understandable way of presenting data. He illustrates his arguments explicitly and gives specific examples on each point. However, the author cited several researches to base his points in, of which the sources were not named. Issue Analysis: Actions should be prioritized depending on the account’s cash potential. In a research, less than 1/3 of patient accounts generate 80% of the cash collections meaning that these accounts do not have a high value. Furthermore, an account with a large balance does not equate to its cash value. A healthcare specific predictive model should be utilized in order to successfully identify accounts that are of higher value. By utilizing this type of model, the process of cash collections will be improved and at the same time, will minimize the operating expenses. In addition, the collection experiences of patients are improved. By prioritizing those that have the most cash value, the likelihood of the collection team pressuring people with accounts of limited cash value is considerably reduced. A focus on cash value is important as this is the issue that the business office team needs to answer. In a situation outside the area of healthcare, a product or service may be stopped or denied anytime. In the field of healthcare however, it is not usually possible to deny or stop the service immediately and the bill can take several weeks before being sent out to the consumer. The collection strategy utilized by hospitals should be in accordance with the cash value of the patient’s account. Consumers who possess the account with the highest cash value should be devoted with special measures of communication such as extra letters and outbound calls. The hospital may be wasting its time and money by trying to pursue a customer who has a large balance but may not be likely to pay while endlessly pursuing consumers who have more chances of paying their balance. A collection report that measures success against the potential cash value should be implemented. The significant measurement is the cash potential as this is what should be collected by the team. The report should calculate the cash potential accurately for each account to avoid becoming ambiguity and confusion. A clear report can also depict appropriate trade-offs that are made and show that a maximization of the net cash is achieved. In addition, bad debt can be clearly traced which leads to improvements in patient access routines.