15 Tips for RCM Leaders Implementing a New Patient Accounting System
The migration to a new Patient Accounting System (PAS), most often as part of an organization’s larger Electronic Health Records (EHR) implementation, requires extensive planning and preparation from revenue cycle management leaders.
Due to an increasingly complex payer environment and expectations that PAS’ fit seamlessly into an organization’s tech stack, proper planning and input from revenue cycle leaders is required to avoid financial losses. That is why it is vital a robust implementation strategy is developed and agreed upon before project kickoff.
Patient Accounting System & Revenue Cycle Management
Our team of revenue cycle experts advises leading hospitals, including RWJBarnabas and St. Luke’s Hospital, on complex RCM implementation projects. We've collected our firm's best practices in a comprehensive guide to help revenue cycle leaders efficiently migrate to a new PAS.
From gap analysis through Go-Live, our free report takes you through all the operational, technical, and resource requirements for a successful implementation. Below we have highlighted a few of our expert's 15 tips:
- Reporting Gap Analysis – Revenue cycle reporting is key to answering a host of vital questions on the financial health of a healthcare organization. Reporting is often one of the biggest challenges and biggest opportunities during an EHR implementation. It can represent one of the biggest changes for end-user experience as it can move your end-users to a self-service reporting model or system-driven work queues. Revenue cycle leaders should not attempt to replicate the portfolio of legacy reports but define future state operational requirements as part of the design and build process. Embrace this opportunity and play a critical role in defining what reports should be developed and how they will be utilized.
- Management of Legacy AR – It is imperative that a cost-benefit analysis is completed to determine whether to convert, sell, or maintain legacy system AR. This cost-benefit analysis is a systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives used to determine the best approach to achieving benefits while preserving savings. Depending on the result of that cost-benefit analysis, key functional areas may have downstream impacts from the decision.
- Cutover Plan for Straddle Patients – Planning for Cutover Patients in the new EHR System (In-House/Observations Patients) requires a system-wide coordination effort. Creating a list of key tasks early in the implementation phase will pay dividends at Go-Live. Task examples are listed below:
- Run Charge detail for inpatients 1-2 days prior to being proactive
- Establish a balancing team to reconcile the two systems (Legacy and New)
- Monitor Late Charges
- Timing of Registration
- Monitor 72 Hour Hold for Medicare Patients that were converted
- Determine how conversion charges will be entered in the new system to avoid duplicate revenue posting
- Test/Validate mapping of Charges from Legacy to New EHR
For the remaining tips please download our free whitepaper: Patient Accounting System Implementation Planning Guide for RCM Leaders.
