Increasing Revenue Through Clinical Connectivity

As most of you know, I’ve been working hard to create more content related to revenue in healthcare. My interest in this has grown even more since I had the chance to attend the ANI 2012 conference in Las Vegas where I got the chance to talk to people like Rishi Saurabh from GE Healthcare. It’s amazing how many people (myself included) don’t think that revenue cycle management is sexy since there are so many opportunities in healthcare.

One example of missed healthcare revenue management opportunities has to do with connecting clinical content with the financial data. From my experience, it’s quite rare to see a healthcare institution that does a great job of connecting these two pieces of data. The clinical data is in a silo of its own and it’s only looked at by the clinical people. The financial data is in its own financial data silo and only ever looked at by the financial people.

These silos are a problem and present a really big opportunity for healthcare organizations to increase the revenue of their organization. Although, doing so in an organization is not always easy. It takes great leadership to bridge the two content silos. Plus, you need someone who’s effective at understanding both the clinical and financial point of view. So, it’s not hard to understand why this doesn’t happen more often.

I think the most basic example of what I’m talking about can be seen in the annual checkup. I was talking with a colleague the other day when I told him that I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d been to my doctor. In fact, I honestly don’t even know my doctor’s name (which might beg the question of whether he’s really MY doctor). Why hasn’t my doctor sent me a reminder about the need to do an annual physical exam? Why don’t I have a regular connection with my doctor that helps me to take better care of my health?

I think at least part of the answer to this is that the clinical is not tied to the financial. If the clinical were tied to the financial, then the doctor could provide a care plan for me and my specific health needs. Then, the financial could ensure that I’m following that care plan. Imagine the revenue implications of me visiting the doctor regularly as part of a well defined care plan.

I’m sure that many of you out there are likely skeptical about whether patient reminders will actually change behavior. Certainly in many cases, these reminders will be discarded or ignored. However, a certain percentage of those reminders will be followed. This will mean your patients get better care and your clinic increases their revenue. Plus, maybe we need to take a deeper look at the care plans that we offer patients. If large percentages are ignoring the suggestions, then maybe we need to rethink the plan or how we’re communicating that plan to the patient.

There are certainly plenty of other medical examples where a follow up doctor visit would make sense and improve the health of your patients. In fact, you could get really sophisticated with how you reach out to your patient population.

I believe the key to success of this type of program is to integrate the clinical data with the financial data. It creates tremendous power and amazing opportunities.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

2 Comments

  • Primary care practices who don’t recall their patients are losing a lot of money.

    Here’s a class I teach often about “Patient Recall Strategies.” Our clients are pediatricians, but the lessons learned are applicable to anyone who practices preventive care. It’s missing the commentary, of course, but I think it completely supports your position here…with data!

    http://www.pedsource.com/recall-strategies

  • Chip,
    Thanks for sharing. Good analysis. I think that’s just the beginning of what will be possible. Plus, I love how if it’s done right, then both the patient and the practice benefit.

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