Revenue Integrity Emerges as Top Concern for Hospital Executives According to Survey

ATLANTA, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Results of a national industry survey conducted by Craneware, Inc. reveal that 60 percent of hospital executives believe revenue integrity is essential to their organization's financial health. The survey of executives at hospitals across the U.S. -- ranging from critical access hospitals to the largest integrated delivery network and hospital systems -- showed nine out of 10 respondents feeling that the current business environment is much more challenging now than in the past few years. The survey also showed that more than three-quarters of respondents consider improving operational efficiencies across all hospital departments as the strongest area of opportunity in the current economic climate.

Craneware, the market leader in automated revenue integrity solutions, conducted its first Annual Executive Industry Survey in November 2011 to learn hospital executives' attitudes toward the current economic landscape and what they deem as the best practices to overcome challenges and ultimately improve on their organization's fiscal health while continuing to provide high-quality patient care.

After improved operational efficiency, respondents ranked charge capture and coding improvements as well as denials prevention and management as the next biggest opportunities to improve hospital fiscal performance.

The findings in the Craneware survey support the view that there is a growing trend of healthcare organizations shifting from a traditional revenue cycle to a collaborative revenue integrity approach. More hospitals are developing revenue integrity teams to gain greater visibility into their business processes and to develop the workflows, communication, accountability and leadership needed to enhance compliance and ensure optimal reimbursement. Indeed, the survey showed that 54 percent of hospital executives added additional staff to address revenue integrity issues, while 25 percent went so far as to establish an entire revenue integrity department.

"With all of the changes occurring in today's healthcare environment, there's really no better time for hospital executives and healthcare finance professionals to advocate for revenue integrity as a new way of doing business," said Todd Craghead, vice president of Revenue Cycle for Intermountain Healthcare. "For Intermountain, creating a multidisciplinary revenue integrity team was vital to building a strong, collaborative partnership between our clinical and financial staff.  Understanding the role of clinicians within the revenue cycle process and how documentation influences an organization's ability to charge for treatment has been critical to helping us continue providing high quality, value-driven care to our community."

Among the survey's other notable findings was the respondents' citing of reimbursement issues as one of the greatest financial challenges for healthcare organizations today. Three-quarters of those surveyed said that receiving proper reimbursement and complex reimbursement requirements by government and private payors are their greatest financial challenge.

"There is tremendous opportunity for improving the financial success of healthcare organizations; however today it requires more than expense reduction and defensive strategies," said Keith Neilson, CEO of Craneware. "With this survey, we sought to gather a better understanding of how C-suite executives see their opportunities and priorities around revenue performance. Obviously revenue integrity has emerged as a primary focus for these organizations."

To view the full results of Craneware's first annual executive industry survey, please visit Craneware's Revenue Integrity Round Table blog at StoptheLeakage.com, a website dedicated to preventing revenue leakage in healthcare. Craneware invites all those in healthcare and related fields join the more than 200 members already committed to the movement to prevent revenue leakage by building a structure to support optimal revenue integrity. 

About Craneware
Craneware (AIM: CRW.L) is the leader in automated revenue integrity solutions that improve financial performance for healthcare organizations. Craneware's market-driven, SaaS solutions help hospitals and other healthcare providers more effectively price, charge, code and retain earned revenue for patient care services and supplies. This optimizes reimbursement, increases operational efficiency and minimizes compliance risk. By partnering with Craneware, clients achieve the visibility required to identify, address and prevent revenue leakage. To learn more, visit craneware.com and stoptheleakage.com.

SOURCE Craneware