The Situation
This non-profit, 500-bed community hospital is located in the eastern United States. Although it had made great efforts to manage Workers’ Compensation and motor vehicle accident accounts, the corporate director of revenue cycle ultimately decided to seek outside help. Not only would this help quickly bring in revenue from these difficult accounts, but it would also free patient account representatives to focus on generating revenue from managed care and government-involved payers.
After considering other vendors, the hospital chose Convergent as its revenue cycle outsourcing partner. Convergent offered highly competitive rates, proven success collecting Workers’ Compensation and motor vehicle accident claims, robust tools for easy access to account information and a reputation for providing valuable education to hospital billing staff as a complimentary service.
The Solution
Convergent immediately placed an experienced professional onsite to gather the information needed to effectively collect on these accounts. Derek Pickell, CEO, Convergent Revenue Cycle Management, Inc., explained, “Convergent understands that cash flow and improved revenue are absolutely critical to the viability of any healthcare organization. Our primary focus is always to help our client partners improve their financial position from the very start of the relationship.”
Convergent’s use of onsite staff also simplified the reassignment of accounts, creating a seamless transition to outsourcing and allowing hospital staff to continue working with minimal disruption as Convergent applied its expertise to these difficult accounts.
The Convergent web portal provided real-time summaries and interactive reports providing the hospital with immediate access to the facts and figures needed to effectively manage its finances and operations, as well as information on specific accounts.
Convergent included education services in the solution and regularly conducted workshops for the hospital’s billing staff, helping to raise their effectiveness and morale. These complimentary workshops targeted specific healthcare reimbursement issues that challenged the team of billers, providing and the compliance and regulatory information they needed to see faster, more positive results on the claims they managed.
The Result
For more than four years, Convergent helped the hospital collect its Workers’ Compensation and motor vehicle accident accounts. In that time, days in accounts receivable for these accounts dropped substantially, from roughly 64 days to approximately 38 days.
“We attribute such a low number to the people and processes that Convergent brought to bear on the challenge of working these claims,” said the Director. “We are very pleased with our Convergent partnership and the financial results we have achieved. We know our charge-offs would be much higher without them.”
Convergent’s relentless pursuit of process excellence has helped the hospital improve its own internal revenue cycle processes. “Convergent is always looking out for us,” said the director. “For example, we’ve recently streamlined our front-end processes and improved our back-end results by applying their ideas and recommendations.”
