Healthcare providers typically rely on a multitude of vendors to help them deliver care to patients. Some partnerships flourish seamlessly, while others are burdensome and take more resources to maintain. Depending on time and interests, physicians themselves may or may not work directly with revenue cycle management vendors; however, healthcare administrators communicate with vendor representatives more frequently — weekly or even daily.
For administrators, a robust reporting dashboard can substantially lessen the burden of vendor relationship management. Intelligent, insightful, and intuitive analytics save time and capacity, make budgeting more transparent, and allow for ongoing adjustments as circumstances continuously evolve. Providers and vendors work together to establish initial goals and KPIs based on historical data. Ideally, each party is incentivized to ensure those objectives are met.
Unfortunately, not all relationships prove fruitful. When partnerships sour, providers may be negatively impacted due to termination conditions that can make it hard to disengage without incurring substantial expenses. This is the reason some providers choose to maintain ties with vendors they aren’t satisfied with, even if doing so negatively impacts their overall operations. And if a provider does abandon a vendor after implementation has begun, they might lose valuable data related to the progress that’s already been made.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Selecting a partner that maximizes both the revenue cycle and the patient financial experience is a practice in purpose and passion.
By: Joey Cavanaugh, Chief Operations Officer at Zotec Partners
Read more at HIT Consultant here.
