Success of Reducing Unbilled Totals for At Risk Client
The Vee Technologies coding team was tasked with identifying solutions to improve the delay in coding unbilled charts for a large hospital. The client was facing a financial crisis and had to significantly reduce staff. The delays in availability to code had reduced their cash revenue and they were looking for solutions to resolve the unbilled volume and improve cash performance fast and efficiently.
Barriers to Overcome
At the end of 2017, the client had to reduce staff significantly and had turnover at the HIM Director position. These changes led to barriers that needed to be addressed and presented opportunities to update processes and implement best practices. Some of the problems to overcome included:
- Outdated clinical processes using primarily paper charts
- Limited support staff
- Lengthy bill hold periods in order to drop charts
- Change in charge entry vendor leading to delays in charge corrections
Solutions and Best Practices Implemented
Our coding team worked closely with the newly hired interim director to establish better protocols and implement new systems to bring the unbilled volume below the goal. The steps that were taken include the following:
- Identified physicians that were missing higher volumes of information and implemented reports for the facility to obtain missing documentation
- Reviewed bill hold days and determined which chart types were not required to be held more than one day
- Implemented best practice on discharge summaries for Inpatient accounts that were discharged less than 48 hours from admit date
- Provided access and training to new charge entry vendor on Chart Tracking System developed by Vee Technologies to improve communication for any charge corrections
- Identified systems that were being utilized by other departments that had documentation stored outside of EHR to minimize delays in scanning
Conclusion
In the initial three months of 2018, Vee Technologies worked closely with the client on daily operational calls to identify the problems and implement corrective actions. By the fourth month, the improvements were reflected in the numbers and we started to see improvements from the client’s operational and clinical departments. By June of 2018, the unbilled goal was exceeded and the process was stabilized. Vee Technologies was able to reduce the overall number of unbilled claims and provide optimized processes to better streamline cash collections and operations.
In these unprecedented times, Vee Technologies is committed to doing our part to help those in need. With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the incredible speed at which things are changing around us, organizations are continually adapting their operations and business structure. Vee Technologies has the experience and capability to help your organization through this difficult time. We've expanded our continuity plan and infrastructure to accommodate the current business needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us when your need arises, our implementation team can have you up and running quickly and efficiently.