CASE STUDY Business Office Outsourcing Vendor Change Vastly Improves Clients Self-Pay Accounts Receivable Services

Client Background Client is a multi-facility healthcare provider in the Midwest operating in a centralized business office (CBO) environment, which outsources its pure self-pay and residual self-pay patient account balances approximately 30 days after billing. Support Analysis - Prior to Kadent Healthcares engagement, the provider was experiencing difficulties in obtaining requested customized revenue cycle data from its business office outsourcing vendor. In addition, the data it was receiving was not always timely or accurate and uncollected accounts were not always returned for bad debt identification on a timely basis. The provider also believed recovery rates could be improved. Kadent Healthcare Solution - Upon engagement the following initiatives were implemented:
Provided a management team dedicated to the success of the partnership. Developed a comprehensive work plan with critical goals, target dates, costs and risks. The plan included assessments of : The clients culture and expectations, The information technology environment, CBO policies and procedures, Individual hospital needs and demographics, On-site staffing needs and Reconciliation, custom reporting and other information needs.

Key Team Kadent Results

Kadent Healthcare was able to understand the clients patient financial system file configuration, program and debug a file transfer application and accept initial placements into Kadent Healthcares collection management system within two weeks. Workflows were customized to maximize recoveries and incorporate the clients culture on patient service and collection efforts. For example: All staff were trained on interaction with clients patients, Letter series and call strategies were developed, Policies were established to screen for hospital-specific charity care criteria, A process was implemented to rechallenge availability of third-party insurance, An effective maintenance payment plan system was developed and An automated bad debt turnover process was implemented that prevents delays in forwarding accounts for bad debt collection, further accelerating the clients cash flow.

Hired and trained on-site staff to assist in workflows within three weeks.

Developed and provided daily close reports, daily notes files, weekly reconciliation reports, weekly bad debt returns reports and an extensive month-end reporting package including aging reports, mail return statistics and installment account analyses. Kadent Technologies Receivables Portfolio Manager (RPM) tool was utilized to craft a variety of client-requested customized reports.

Implemented a weekly inventory reconciliation nearly eliminating balance discrepancies. Established weekly meetings with operational management as well as bi-monthly meetings between client and Kadent Healthcare senior management. Valid patient complaints exceed Six Sigma levels of performance satisfaction and compliance and recorded calls are produced within 24 hours of request. Recoveries on mature placements increased from 16% to 31%, representing nearly $18 million in annualized increased collections.