Survey finds 84% of healthcare revenue cycle teams use productivity standards or quotas to meet goals
AKASA, the Unified Automation company for healthcare revenue cycle management, released a report titled, “New Productivity Benchmarks For The Healthcare Revenue Cycle.” The report includes the first-ever publication of the average time it takes health system staff to complete critical tasks within revenue cycle operations based on AKASA’s proprietary data. These benchmarks are some of the first for the revenue cycle industry and accurately forecast how to measure productivity for tasks within focus areas, like financial clearance, billing, and denials.
Nearly 84% of healthcare revenue cycle teams say they use productivity standards or quotas to meet goals, according to a recent AKASA survey of healthcare financial leaders. Of those who indicated using productivity measures, nearly 70% report scaling these across all focus areas within the revenue cycle, including claims management, insurance follow-up, coding, denials management, and financial clearance.
Commissioned by AKASA, the survey fielded responses from nearly 400 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders at hospitals and health systems across the United States through the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s (HFMA) Pulse Survey program between May 27, 2021 and June 28, 2021. The national survey was designed to assess the adoption of automation in revenue cycle operations at hospitals and health systems across the U.S.
“It’s challenging for healthcare revenue cycle leaders to access accurate benchmarks in terms of actual staff productivity,” said Amy Raymond, head of revenue cycle operations at AKASA. “You often can’t pull productivity metrics on someone working eligibility, for example, because it often gets mixed in with other tasks within financial clearance that are being completed at the same time. With AKASA’s new report, leaders can fill in the information gaps and identify a reasonable number of claims or tasks to be worked daily. These benchmarks will also help managers set goals and forecast their staffing and resource needs.
Healthcare organizations are investing in automation solutions for time-consuming, repetitive, and laborious tasks that are necessary but are often a less strategic use of staff time and talent. This can help organizations improve retention in revenue cycle positions, known for high rates of turnover.
“By leveraging automation, healthcare leaders can have their employees focus on more complex responsibilities and roles, allowing them to work at the top of their skillset, and spend more time on activities that directly engage patients and improve the overall patient financial experience,” said Malinka Walaliyadde, co-founder and CEO of AKASA.
AKASA works with provider organizations of all sizes (with operations in all 50 states) to automate revenue cycle functions. AKASA’s models and algorithms have been trained on nearly 250 million claims and remittances. AKASA’s proprietary software provides valuable insights for health systems into where their staff spend their time and what baseline costs are involved. AKASA’s “New Productivity Benchmarks For The Healthcare Revenue Cycle” is based on our proprietary data and informed by the expertise and experience of our team. You can download the report for free here.