Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Healthcare Financial Management Association Annual Conference in Denver. This year, the show’s theme revolved around “Cost Effectiveness in Health,” which sessions focused on everything from interoperability to revenue cycle management and more.
In addition to showcasing the DeliverHealth Platform at the show, the DeliverHealth team used this opportunity to also network and connect with our peers in the space, and to reflect on industry challenges and opportunities.
Notably, we saw two major key themes emerge – the impact of the recent staff shortages in healthcare, as well as the evolution of healthcare technology.
Let’s explore.
Combatting Staffing Shortages & Physician Burnout
The Great Resignation has had a massive impact on all industries – and healthcare is no exception. In fact, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. could face a shortage of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034. Furthermore, a recent report found that 45% of physicians have been experiencing burnout over the past two years, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a major role in feelings of stress and burnout.
When it comes to staffing shortages in healthcare, one of the many roles that we’re seeing impacted the most is for coders. Prior to the pandemic, medical coding was one of the top 20 most in-demand jobs in the US, and this demand has only risen. Unfortunately, when a health system is unable to hire enough coders, it inevitably contributes to delayed revenue, increased AR, denials, and lost revenue. With the implementation of innovative healthcare technology, however, healthcare organizations can benefit by accelerating their revenue cycle, as well as improved coder satisfaction.
Take DeliverHealth’s autonomous coding solution, for example. With this tool, healthcare organizations will see a direct improvement in discharge not final coded (DNFC), time to bill, and denials. This all translates to faster revenue and a hard return on investment (ROI). Also, for organizations that are outsourcing their coding due to gaps in coder coverage, tech enabling the coding is a significant cost savings. This is not Computer Assisted Coding (CAC), which only offers suggestions to a human coder. This is Auto Coding and does not require a human coder, unless there is an exception.
The Evolution of Healthcare Tech: Doing More with Less
Another key theme we saw emerge at HFMA this year focused on where healthcare tech is headed and the importance of “doing more with less,” while also having an increasing focus on interoperability. Notably, UPMC hosted an interoperability session that addressed not only interoperability as a whole but its potentially positive impact on a healthcare organization’s finances by providing cost savings and an overall higher ROI for healthcare organizations.
DeliverHealth was founded with a vision of simplifying the complexities of healthcare, and taking that a step further by making these challenges and complexities digestible and approachable for our customers.
At DeliverHealth, we believe you shouldn’t have to implement dozens of software services in order to get the best end result. When practices are forced to do so, it can lead to not only lost revenue but also increased burnout. In order to combat this, our DeliverHealth Platform removes these inherent complexities that clinicians and care teams face while helping administration obtain the realization of their EHR investments – leading to saved time, money, and of course, allowing these physicians and care teams more time to focus on patient centric efforts.
What additional healthcare conferences are you looking forward to this year? We’d love the opportunity to meet for a briefing or demo. For more information, visit www.deliverhealth.com.