Unclogging cash flow needs end-to-end revenue cycle management 

Last year, Nicole Clawson of the Pennsylvania Mountain Healthcare Alliance went looking for a technology partner that could give the numerous hospitals within the system end-to-end revenue cycle management.

After interviews with 15 vendors, Clawson and the team announced that the alliance would deploy FinThrive’s integrated revenue management platform in all of its 13 hospitals. 

“We signed the contract last January,” said Clawson, vice president of Finance and Revenue Cycle for PHMA. “We moved with four of our member hospitals. We’re still implementing the front end (through) the back end in denials management. We also kicked it off in another two hospitals, doing everything in stages.”

The bottom line for any RCM technology is to improve financial performance. But at PMHA, this strategy is critical for the alliance’s rural hospitals in Western and Central Pennsylvania that abut the large health system in that area of the state, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“The rural independent hospital isn’t flooded with cash,” Clawson said.

An end-to-end revenue cycle management technology adoption model means Clawson can drill down to where issues are hampering getting cash in the door and causing claim denials. Because, when something is wrong with hospital revenue, revenue cycle is where people look to find a fix.

“When I get a denial, I want to fix it from where it started,” Clawson said. “How can we stop this from happening in the future? FinThrive allows me to see it in a snapshot.”

For other hospitals and health systems looking for similar implementation, Clawson recommends starting with a system strategy task force, creating a list of bullet points for what needs to be accomplished and not rushing the process. 

Implementation is too new for ROI numbers, but Clawson said the system is working, “even better than I thought it would be.”

Jeff Becker, vice president, Portfolio Marketing at FinThrive, will join Clawson at HIMSS24 to talk about the Revenue Cycle Management Adoption Model.

The session, “Revenue Cycle Management Technology Adoption Model” is scheduled for March 13, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in room W3330A at HIMSS24 in Orlando. Learn more and register.

Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org