Healthcare providers are becoming more cautious with IT spending and are looking for products, such as self-service solutions, that have a measurable return on investment, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by Healthcare Informatics Research, polled 435 IT professionals between Nov. 25 and Dec. 4, 2008 and was commissioned by the NCR Corporation, a global technology company based in Dayton, Ohio.

The survey indicates that one in three healthcare organizations are either postponing non-essential projects or imposing longer IT project implementation timeframes in an effort to curb spending.

According to the study, one of the biggest challenges providers face is ensuring the accuracy of medical claims. Most care providers say their staffs spend hours finding missing and/or correcting inaccurate claims-related data after the patient visit.

Forty-six percent say they expect staff to devote between one and five hours per week to cleaning up claims, and more than 50 percent estimate that at least one in 10 claims is denied based on inaccurate or incomplete data.

Study participants ranked verification of insurance, demographic information and outstanding balances as most important to improving revenue cycle management.

According to NCR, healthcare providers using self-service technology for patient check-in have seen co-payment collections increase by up to 40 percent and insurance claim denials decrease by up to 36 percent.

"With the current economic climate, we have to be very strategic with how we spend our IT dollars," said Tim Reiner, senior revenue officer for the Adventist Health System. "By utilizing NCR's self-service technology, we've been able to consistently increase data accuracy, solicit outstanding patient balances and boost collections. In 2008, 4 percent of all payments, representing more than $4.87 million in revenue, were received through self-service channels including the on-site check-in kiosks and online bill pay."

"The slowdown in the economy is impacting every organization in every industry," said Chakri Toleti, NCR's vice president of healthcare industry marketing. "Our goal is to facilitate consumer-driven healthcare that will make organizations more efficient and profitable so they can succeed in these tough economic times."