In a recent Hayes Management Consulting blog, Steven M. Wagner, PH.D., M.P.A, offers 3 key factors for success in the evolving healthcare environment when looking for revenue cycle leaders.
Healthcare leaders need to look at the bigger picture of healthcare reform rather than narrowly focusing on its separate components. Fragmented legislation and grants led us to where the healthcare industry stands today, and only integrating networks of components in healthcare can lead us to successful reform. Success means that healthcare becomes accessible and affordable with or without insurance to all payors, quality outcomes take into account the functional and holistic health of the patient, and patients are satisfied and feeling well.
The hard reality is that in the end, everyone in the industry will be dealing with less revenue because the over-arching goal for the US government is cost containment. Only when leaders take all the changes into account will we, as an industry, be able to facilitate truly beneficial change. To make that happen, revenue cycle leaders need to be able to integrate cost, quality, and access into our routine processes of patient care, frequently analyze outcomes including the patients' self-perceived health statuses, and develop actionable solutions.