discussion comment revenue cycle 1

Please provide a comment for about 3-5 sentences regarding the discussion below. Please use APA and peer-reviewed resources. Thank you.

Healthcare reform has made some major impacts on how organizations obtain their revenues. In many cases, hospitals and clinics have had to completely re-evaluate their revenue cycle in order to ensure their own process was working efficiently. The article I selected focuses on the changes to the revenue cycle now that healthcare reform has been undergoing some significant changes. Specifically, the authors believe the areas of Health Information Management and IT areas will have the largest impact on the revenue cycle and allow for many opportunities for organizations to capitalize on. “As payment continues to decline, hospitals should take a renewed interest in improving their financial performance through the revenue cycle” (Thiry, Evans, Walter, & Ramanathan, 2011). Organizations should conduct an internal self-assessment of their own revenue cycle in order to identify any strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This assessment will allow leadership to better understand the inner workings of the organization and get the big picture of how they are fitting in with the market.

The data that they use for this evaluation should include elements such as key performance indicators, published policies and procedures, department budgets, training materials, process flows, and discussions with staff (Thiry, Evans, Walter, & Ramanathan, 2011). Ideally, this information will be able to identify some key findings like unnecessary costs, lost revenue, inefficient patient flow, and revenue enhancement strategies. These all have a direct impact on the revenue cycle and improvement in these areas will result in more revenue being collected. The revenue cycle for any hospital or clinic can be improved upon by utilizing some different strategies. Whenever possible, front-end collection strategies will improve cash flow and lower the amount of bad debt that is left on the books. The hospital should strive to reduce the amount of credit balance that they may have. The lower amount that they owe, the more they will save on interest payments to the lender. The accounts receivables should be closely monitored to ensure they are being properly updated and billed out to patients/payors as quickly as possible. Any delay in the AR process will increase the time it takes to collect money. Longer wait times lead to a reduced cash flow and restricts what the organization can accomplish for new investments. There are many different areas that can be adjusted that will result in a better revenue cycle. Identifying these key problem areas will result in higher rewards while getting more revenue for each interaction.

Thiry, D., Evans, M., Walter, L., & Ramanathan, S. (2011). Success under reform through revenue cycle excellence. Healthcare Financial Management, 65(5), 92-6, 98. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://s…