2022 Predictions for Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)

As we head into 2022, we asked the Healthcare IT Today community to share some predictions for the new year.  I always find it interesting to learn what people think is coming down the road.  Be sure to check out all our Health IT Predictions.

One of the hottest topics thanks to COVID is associated with revenue to a healthcare organization.  Revenues were dramatically impacted at many organizations because of COVID and these new waves are causing challenges as well.  Plus, many organizations were already facing revenue challenges as patients have higher deductible plans and patient payments matter a lot more.

The revenue cycle management predictions focus on a number of these areas.  Plus, they touch on the really important area of clinical documentation improvement (CDI).  They also talk about the move to credit card on file and payment plans for patients.

Here’s a look at some of the 2022 revenue cycle management (RCM) predictions we received:

Autumn Reiter, Vice President of CDI Services and Tech Enablement at CorroHealth
Traditional Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) has been based on specific KPIs, payer mix, DRG changes, query response rates, etc., and although these have morphed as the profession has matured to include many additional points, I see 2022 as the year that the hunger for increased data analytics is seen in CDI and its impact is thrust into the spotlight.

According to the ACDIS paper, ‘CDI Leadership Counsel Research: Lessons Learned for the CDI Professional’, “Instead of simply monitoring performance through CC/ MCC capture rates and query impacts, today’s CDI leaders need to know their impact on quality measures, physician engagement, and more in order to secure the resources they need to fulfill organizational and departmental goals.”

CDI is increasingly needing to quantify the decisions being made with reportable program statistics that supports those choices. Retrieving that data can be challenging. CDI’s reach can span an entire health system and all data may not be housed in the same platform. CDI departments not only can prove the program’s value with analytics but can also use this data to support their next initiatives.

Educated guesses and predictions are no longer enough. Data must support program impact, growth, and future endeavors. Revenue Cycle leaders, including CDI, will be on the hunt for user-friendly, concise, and laser pointed ways of retrieving system data to support their departments, patients, and healthcare decisions.

Michelle Dowling, VP of Marketing at Rectangle Health
When it comes to utilizing technology, we see practices thinking “patient-first”. They are interested in finding out how to implement best practices to increase the adoption of new digital methods. This trend will continue into 2022 and beyond because the practices promote new technologies by socializing with their patients and finding benefits that support both loyalty and satisfaction.

Digitizing workflows like billing, appointment booking, and payment processing are ripe for automation and carry benefits for the practices like simplified data sharing among necessary parties, expanding patient reach, and improving patient communication. As patients utilize these digital tools-in some cases, may even change practices for a desirable digital experience – practices are saving valuable administrative time. Payment features like Card on File and text-to-pay services are getting practices paid faster and replacing antiquated workflows for payment collection and appointment scheduling.

Another trend we expect to gain steam in 2022 is one we saw popularized by retail in 2021: payment plans. This is already starting to come to the healthcare space and it’s easy to see why. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, half of adults in America put off or skipped some sort of health care or dental care in the past year because of the cost. If a patient has the ability to pay over time, practices are able to recover payment incrementally and patients get the care they need.

Deirdre Ruttle, CMO at InstaMed and Head of Healthcare Payments Marketing at J.P. Morgan
In 2022, consumer loyalty and choice will continue to shape the landscape of healthcare payments. This will be driven, in part, by the 56% of consumers who would consider switching providers for a better healthcare payments experience. When consumers hit friction points in their healthcare payments journey, it impacts their overall loyalty to the organization. Providers will need to prioritize a simplified, digital-first healthcare payment experiences to ease the burden of increasing out-of-pocket medical costs and deliver better experiences for all consumers.

Kimberly Hartsfield, Executive Vice President of Growth Enablement at Visiquate
In 2022, automation will be the primary area of focus for revenue cycle leaders. Staffing shortages and the need for maximum revenue capture will mean bots working on 400 accounts rather than a person manually touching 40 accounts per day. This kind of automation for repetitive and transactional tasks like claim status, denials management and prior authorization will be the key to success in the coming year, and will allow organizations to upskill their team to tackle the complicated tasks that require human intervention.

If you have other predictions you’d like to share, do so in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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