Leveraging Technology Benefits: The Internal and External Customer

Hospitals and health systems across the country struggle to manage the challenges that arise from working through large volumes of accounts receivable. By outsourcing disputed and aged receivables, hospitals and health systems seek to significantly improve their management of denials, while working to build a prevention process that ultimately results in increased cashflow and reduced aging. Over the years, these goals have remained constant, but now more than ever, hospitals and health systems are being tasked to do more with less; so too, are their vendor partners.

Convergent RCM provides technology-enabled accounts receivable management solutions and education services for the healthcare industry. We employ over 400 healthcare professionals including nurses, accounts specialists, coders, and revenue cycle experts, and we leverage proprietary technology and client-specific protocol to provide guaranteed results for hundreds of clients nationwide. In the age where hospitals and health systems are constantly looking to reduce costs while seeing a greater return on investment, vendor partners must adapt to provide the best possible service to their clients, at the lowest possible price point. Convergent’s b response? Leveraging technology to meet the ever-changing client requirements and expectations.

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA)

Convergent successfully addresses the varying needs of its hospital clients – from high balance complex denied claims, to conversion work, to higher volumes with lower balances. Further, we quickly adapt to our clients’ evolving needs. To perform at its best, Convergent often requires information from the hospital that will help gain a full understanding of the issues preventing account resolution. While Convergent procures this information at its own expense, it has become more challenging when incorporated into the current healthcare landscape that places a premium on cost when selecting a partner. Until recently, when Convergent would look to leverage additional resources necessary to ensure client satisfaction, additional people would be hired. Fast forward to today, Convergent is now one of the industry leaders in employing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology to drive efficiency gains, resulting in unique workflow specialization and enhanced results for its client base.

Through the use of technology, Convergent has built tools that, with just the click of a mouse, interact with any client system, extract and transmit data across multiple applications, and serve to emulate those same services that previously required multiple full-time employees.

The end result can be described as nothing less than a breakthrough—processes that would previously require several days’ work from many full-time employees are now completed by a single user in a few hours. Additionally, the quality assurance requirements built into our applications ensure a higher degree of accuracy and a lower processing cost while allowing for complete transparency into the function being performed. Furthermore, our tools are scalable, such that new challenges, projects and requirements are able to be tackled quickly and efficiently without the time requirements inherent in the hiring and training process.

Convergent’s clients benefit significantly from this new era in account resolution. When accounts are initially placed with Convergent as “collection-ready,” the results that follow reduce natural time-lags prevalent in many outsourcing engagements, ultimately resulting in quicker turnaround on accounts, regardless of volume. With the increased accuracy accompanying an enhanced workflow, it’s only natural that clients see an increase in cashflow. By continuing to leverage the technology and tools available, either organically or through consultation and collaboration with a partner, Convergent has shown it is adept at satisfying both the internal and the external customer—a necessary expectation to achieve the best possible results for hospitals, health systems, and their vendor partners alike.