Despite the sudden and unexpected departure of financial leaders at Hyndman Area Health Centers, new management was able to quickly improve their revenue processes by collaborating with eClinicalWorks. The Hyndman team is now more efficient, streamlined, and able to deliver financial information in a timely manner.
Healthcare IT Today met with Dr. Brian Stratta, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Hyndman Area Health Centers (HAHC) to learn more.
Sudden Management Departures
The town of Hyndman, PA is located 20 minutes north of the Maryland and Pennsylvania border. It has a population of 800 people. HAHC started in the early 70s when FEMA came in to help the town recover from a flood.
“The two trailers that FEMA set up eventually became the offices of a dentist and doctor,” explained Stratta. “After 20 years, in the early 2000’s, we got our FQHC designation.”
The last eight months at HAHC have been “quite interesting” according to Dr. Stratta. Their Chief Financial Officer left the organization suddenly and so too did their billing manager. To complicate matters, the billing manager wiped their computer clean when they departed. This meant that HAHC had to start from scratch to rebuild their revenue cycle processes.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Systemic Review of RCM Processes
The HAHC billing team, under a new manager, collaborated with eClinicalWorks to review and streamline the RCM process. Together, they reviewed each process step to look for ways to simplify and streamline it.
Almost immediately, the team found that their actual claims denial rate was almost 45% – much higher than the 0% reported by the prior manager. Previously the billing team would spend most of their time correcting claims and resubmit them rather than address the root cause of the denial in the first place.
By working collaboratively, eClinicalWorks and the HAHC team made changes to their procedures and fixed issues upstream in the billing process. This resulted in a significant reduction in denied claims. HAHC now has a 17% initial claims denial rate.
“The eClinicalWorks team was very helpful,” said Dr. Stratta. “They came in and immediately made suggestions on what we could do to improve our process. They went through everything with our new billing manager and found places where we could improve upon – like insurance verification.”
The eClinicalWorks team also helped implement changes to the platform’s rules engine which automated several tasks that were previously handled manually.
New RCM Process Means More Up-to-Date Financial Information
“I know for a fact that I put a lot of pressure on my new billing manager to give me reports and other financial information,” said Dr. Stratta. “Before, it was very frustrating because the reports would be a month or two behind. It was very hard to make decisions when the data was that old.”
With the new streamlined RCM process, reports are now available in near real-time. The HAHC management team are able to see the financial health of their organization and make more informed decisions.
Watch the interview with Dr. Brian Stratta to learn:
- How the HAHC team improved their insurance verification process
- Why it pays to be open-minded about your processes
Learn more about Hyndman Area Health Centers at https://hyndmanhealth.org/
Learn more about eClinicalWorks at https://www.eclinicalworks.com/
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Amazing post. Thanks for sharing it with us.