IT-Business Convergence

We’ve come a long way since the first computer showed up in the temperature controlled room in the basement of the hospital or on the desk at patient registration in the physician’s office.  Technology has been one of the key enablers of the home health care industry. 

It has been a hard sell over the years to convince clinicians driven by the desire to care for people the importance of using point of care devices and spending an increasing amount of time with a machine rather than their patient.  It’s been even more challenging to get the owners and leaders of companies to understand that technology leadership starts at the top of the organization and they must understand, embrace and utilize technology and information on a daily basis. 

IT-business convergence occurs when a company breaks down the walls betweeen the IT and business sides of the business so that the technology professionals go beyond supporting the business to truly enabling and transforming the business. 

Companies with a high degree of IT-business convergence do the following:   

• View IT as an innovation engine that continually transforms the business, often enabling new revenue streams.
• Regard their customers as kings and view customer service, both internal and external, as supreme.
• Rotate business and IT staffers across departments and job functions.
• Provide an overarching goal that is crystal clear to each and every IT and business employee.
• Ensure that IT employees know how the company makes (or loses) money.
• Create a distinct, vibrant and unique company culture.

Reference:  “These CIOs go way beyond Business Alignment” – Computerworld, May 24, 2010 

There is simply too much opportunity for growth and risk of failure to allow key managers to claim IT ignorance or IT professionals in our company to remain isolated from the business they are serving.

Surviving and Thriving in Healthcare

Rock-Pond’s president, Pete Tanguay, presented the keynote address at the Fastrack User Conference in Melville New York on Thursday May 28, 2010.  About 150 Fastrack users across all continuums of home health care attended and engaged in roundtable sessions and networking events. 

The primary message given was that with all of the technology available today and with the massive amounts of data available to generate valuable information, the key to surviving and thriving in health care is not simple having technology and software functionality, but to be able to prioritize and effectively implement this technology and software functionality to bring business value.  Organizations must have a strategic information plan that is rooted in the business goals of the company and carried down to the day to day processes.  Effective implementation of technology requires personnel across the organization to take the initiative to learn how their function fits within the overall business.  We must break down the walls between the clinical, reimbursement and back end accounting functions of our home health care company and leverage the technology and data that is available to drive the business. 

Specific data integration and data reporting case studies along with lessons learned were presented.  To preview the Powerpoint Presentation, click on the image below.

Patient Pay Accounts – measure & manage them

Too often we measure the results of our staff by the wrong measures.  This is a disservice to our staff and a liability to our business.  The more we measure based on absolute numbers that are indicators of the business results we are looking for, the more satisfied our staff will be and the healthier our business will be.   

Consider the patient pay collection process.  The process is simple

1. Transfer the balance to the patient.
2. Contact the patient to set up a payment plan (payment in full or monthly payments).
3. If the phone does not work, use certified mail.
4. If the patient won’t pay, escalate the notices you send or transfer to collection.
5. If the patient is still active, collect the amount on the next delivery.

How do you measure this process?

1. The number of calls made
2. The number of patients contacted
3. The number of payment plans set up
4. The number of accounts sent to collection
5. The percentage of patient A/R to total A/R

Reimbursement management needs to know the amount of time is being spent on patient collections and the results that are coming in from these efforts.  You must know the costs you are incurring to collect the accounts and the money you are collecting as a result.  If you don’t, the effectiveness of your patient pay process is a guess at best and you may be chasing a $10 bill with $100.