Leveraging Automation in 2023
The new year is less than 2 weeks away, and while you may be checking out for 2022, you're most likely thinking about how you're going to crush your goals in 2023. This week, we've got answers.
Welcome to the RevCycle Rundown! The RevCycle Rundown is for anyone looking to stay up to date on the latest in revenue cycle, policy changes, and other healthcare news. Every week, we’ll send you a bite-sized newsletter sharing our favorite podcasts, articles, and conversations with revenue cycle leaders across the country.
As we approach the end of the year, we’re all thinking about our New Year's resolutions and what we want to accomplish in 2023. The same is probably true for your organization! Right now is the time to be thinking about how you’ll hit those KPIs next year.
This week, we’re discussing a few things that could have an impact on KPIs.
Medicare finalizes changes to OPPS & ASC payment systems, and 340B Drug prices
How you can leverage automation within the rev cycle
Hope you enjoy it!
CMS Releases CY 23 OPPS and ASC Payment System Final Rule
In 2023, hospitals can expect an increase in OPPS and ASC reimbursement. CMS is increasing OPPS payment rates by 3.8% for hospitals that meet quality reporting requirements. This is an increase from the original 2.7% proposed earlier this year. This change will impact roughly 3,500 hospitals and approximately 6,000 ASCs.
This final rule also comes with a change to the 340B program. The Public Health Service Act's Section 340B enables participating hospitals and other healthcare providers to purchase certain covered outpatient drugs from manufacturers at reduced prices. For CY 2023, in response to the Supreme Court's decision in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, CMS is finalizing a general payment rate of ASP plus 6% for drugs and biologicals obtained through the 340B Program, in line with CMS's policy for drugs not obtained through the 340B program. In accordance with the statute, CMS is implementing a -3.09% reduction to the payment rates for non-drug services to ensure budget neutrality for the 340B drug payment rate change for CY 2023.
With CMS finalizing the decision to decrease the Medicare physician payment rate next year, most people believe that hospitals are expecting another difficult year, even with the increase in OPPS and ASC payment systems. 2022 has been one of the worst years financially for hospitals and health systems across the country.
Read More Here: CMS Official Release
Leveraging Automation for the Revenue Cycle
Virtually everyone is feeling margin compression and staffing shortages. Revenue cycle leaders are exploring how automation could help.
But how should systems approach dipping their toe in the water? In this podcast Chuck Rackley, chief strategy officer of Infinix shares what to keep in mind.
Don’t expect to automate too much when you’re starting out. Find small but meaningful parts of the revenue cycle.
Find these areas by speaking to your front-line people. Figure out what part of their workflows eat up a lot of time but are simple in their nature.
For example, account status updating is a great place to start. Calculate how much time people are spending on this. How much is that costing you?
Don't automate a bad process. Work with subject matter experts who can help straighten out your workflows. Pave that path with automation to create a super highway.
How to evaluate automation’s impact in 4 ways
FTE savings - consider you might be looking for people you don’t actually need. Could you do more with less?
Upskill staff - move your team's attention to more meaningful and complex tasks. How would that impact an employee's work satisfaction?
Opportunity cost - what are you not getting to because the team is spending time on menial tasks? If staff could refocus their efforts how would that impact your goals?
Quality - Speed and quality increases. Robots are not prone to human error. How is turnover affecting your quality of work?
Listen to the entire conversation here: Leveraging Automation
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