If you’re like most healthcare executives, you've probably spent countless hours thinking about a host of challenges including razor thin margins, the labor market, and how to improve the patient experience. You’ve probably read articles about RCM outsourcing, watched webinars and analyzed data about the impact it can have. Maybe you’ve even spoken to health systems who have taken on an enterprise RCM outsourcing solution.
If you fit into the above category, you’re not alone. A data-backed survey of CFOs and revenue cycle leaders recently confirmed the industry’s strong focus on finding strategic partnerships. In fact, the survey data showed 28% of respondents – the top response – said their top revenue cycle solution was to find a strategic revenue cycle management outsourcing partner.
This type of decision not only requires careful thought, but it also requires insight from someone who’s been there before. Since we can’t be in the room as executives make RCM outsourcing decisions, we sat down with Todd Craghead, former vice president of revenue cycle at Intermountain Healthcare (IMH), to discuss his perspective on outsourcing. He provided candid information about what led IMH down the path to RCM outsourcing, including managing multiple partners, financial metrics they were trying to improve, and how key stakeholders are impacted by RCM outsourcing.
The Journey to RCM Efficiency
For years, revenue cycle management partnerships and vendors have been an important part of how health systems have operated. However, due to the current state of hospital finances as outlined by Kaufman Hall, health care executives are now recognizing the urgent need to make more digital and cultural transformations to push towards greater RCM efficiency. This greater push has created new forms of partnership that have been adopted by large health systems such as Ascension, Sutter Health, and Intermountain Healthcare.
According to Craghead, IMH started their RCM efficiency journey more than 15 years ago as the organization observed many decentralized revenue cycle teams trying to operate across the system. “By nature of that, it’s obvious they weren’t obtaining the efficiency, nor the benefits they could by being together and aligned,” said Craghead. This led to a multi-year journey of organizing and centralizing the teams – both physically and in terms of process management. Over time it evolved to include leveraging third-party technology, and utilizing outside organizations to provide RCM insight, guidance and leadership.
