How Automation Transforms Healthcare Financial Operations?

There is no denying, the healthcare system is infused with a heap of paperwork and administrative hassle. Be it medicine prescriptions, new patient registration, emergency admission form, insurance claim documentation, or medical records, paperwork is just inescapable to everyday workflows. These manual workflows are not merely repetitive, they are time-consuming, pricey, mistake-prone, and drop efficiency.

Moreover, when coronavirus swept the world, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare centers were among the hardest-hit organizations. According to the New York Times, hospitals lost approximately $50 billion a month because of the pandemic, despite integrating cost-saving measures, like furloughing staff in the midst of a health crisis.

Fortunately, there is a tried-and-tested way for healthcare organizations and hospitals to address the financial situation and drive efficiency while saving mammoth on revenue - “Invest in Financial Automation”.

Presently, investing in financial automation is unskippable for effective short as well as long-term benefits, so when another crisis happens unexpectedly, hospitals and organizations are prepared.

Healthcare Automation - Enrouting the Digital Transformation

Encompassing Intelligent Automation with emerging technologies like blockchain and AI, the healthcare industry has been rewriting its technological landscape by seamlessly automating complicated operational processes, administrative tasks, financial functions, insurance claims, and management.

Indeed, this has helped the healthcare industry minimize the amount of form-filling, approval burden, and many time-consuming tasks from their workforce's daily workloads.

Data Bridge Market Research shows that the medical automation market worldwide is predicted to grow from USD 44,864.14 million in 2020 to $93,734.64 million by 2028. Considering the increase in surgical procedures and epidemic outbreaks, the growth is anticipated at a CAGR of 9.8% during the predicted period.

Simply put, hospitals and healthcare forerunners are preparing to navigate what could be an exceptionally turbulent 2023. So, let’s see how financial automation is playing a key role to address these challenges, improving patient experience, and embellishing medical procedures in the healthcare vertical.

Financial Healthcare Automation Addressing Challenges 

1. One Account For Everything

Unquestionably, cash collection is among the biggest challenges in the healthcare industry. Myriad healthcare revenue teams carry their financial operations manually through approaches like spreadsheets, binders, or other project management tools. These methods and tools don't offer a holistic overview of the organization's process or a complete control framework.

In scenarios of huge influxes of transactions, which healthcare often experiences, are placed inside this cluttered and uncontrolled environment, and transactions can slip through menial cracks. Eventually, this resulted in lost revenue that could've been funneled to address the organization's needs.

Thus, healthcare accountants should ensure their financial processes have proper controls and tracking to stay abreast in an uncontrolled environment.

2. Centralized Cloud Database

Every patient treated by healthcare centers has their own set of information, like Protected Health Information (PHI), payment plans and methods, insurance data, and other types of information.

When this voluminous information exists for one patient, imagine how complex the process turns when multiple facilities are factored in. Even with numerous systems and databases for the information, healthcare accountants invest an inordinate amount of time vetting through transactions and tracking the payments. Patients keep swapping different healthcare facilities, which further complicates matters.

Luckily, putting this data in a safe Cloud environment with appropriate financial controls not merely ensures HIPAA compliance but de-clutters the financial process in a manner that the time-savings is invaluable to an accountant in a healthcare organization.

3. Time Invested for Value-Added Tasks

When manual tasks like transaction matching, journal entry, and account reconciliation are automated, this frees a behemoth amount of time for each healthcare accountant. They can use their high-level skills for more strategic, value-added tasks when they're not working manually on processes. These tasks can vary from creating and managing a cash war room, planning and strategizing for growth, to effectively using every dollar earned.

In addition, healthcare accounting and revenue teams can focus on future-proofing their financial processes with financial automation, especially securing against unforeseen red flags like COVID-19. After all, an untold number of healthcare facilities and their office of finance were caught off guard by the epidemic, and their finances got disrupted.

So, better be prepared and step ahead of the next abrupt crisis, whatever and whenever that may be.

4. Save Cost and Time

Shifting healthcare revenue and accounting teams from conventional manual processes to automated solutions reaps organizations with significant time and cost savings. Mainly, customers observe a high ROI, like:

• Nearly 90% reduction in the number of reconciling accounts
• Up to 75% cutback in revenue losses
• 30% time minimization on reconciliations for reconcilers

As already discussed, these savings from integrating financial automation will significantly impact your organization, not just in the midst of the pandemic but well into the future. So, to thrive in this environment, healthcare organizations should consider a comprehensive Record to Report solution. 

5. Automated Billing Procedures

Just like any other day, the hospital staff is expected to prepare, calculate and evaluate several bills, consisting of doctor’s consultations, test fees, ward’s room charges, and numerous other costs incurred by different patients during their diagnosis and treatment. Sooner or later, manually settling accounts is time-consuming, and one error can disrupt the complete flow of activities.

Therefore, financial automation in healthcare helps automate conventional billing processes, improving precision and minimizing human error. The programmed bots accurately calculate the bill amount faster to avoid any payment delays and miscalculated bills.

6. Claim Processing Re-Written

Automated claims processing consists of using digital technology, machine learning, software, and advanced analytics to optimize healthcare claims management. No more need for staff to sift through voluminous, complex coding lists, medical records, and payers' edits to attach to the claim.

This technology helps optimize the complete process, from claim submission to reimbursement, by eliminating delay and upholding turnaround times. So, by minimizing administrative heaps and optimizing claims processing, automation allows healthcare organizations to accelerate payment cycles, improvise revenue management, and provide quicker, more efficient services to patients as well as insurance providers.

Finally

Perplexity still surrounds the widespread adoption of automation in healthcare administration; the impact of automation on healthcare administration is unquestionably transformative and promising. And, as technology evolves, administrative tasks that were once time-consuming and error-prone are now streamlined and automated, leading to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved patient care.

At Signity Solutions, we believe that automation augments healthcare administrators' abilities, not swapping them. Moreover, it’s an amazing time for the healthcare industry as it complies with the revolutionizing power of automation and crafts a way for a more efficient and patient-related future.

Our well-designed strategic solutions amalgamated with innovative technologies help you confidently navigate the transition to automated healthcare administration, empowering organization and expanding bandwidth.

Talk to experts now and put yourself ahead of the curve.