HIMSS15 will be the setting for a possible landmark in the evolution of revenue cycle management within healthcare.

 

The HIMSS Revenue Cycle Improvement Task Force will show what the patient financial experience should look like on Monday, April 13, during a working breakfast session “Revenue Cycle of the Future: Revolutionary Model for Healthcare Revenue Management in a Consumer-Centric World.”

 

“We’re unveiling an infographic that shows a typical patient encounter and what the interaction should look like from a financial perspective and what type of information needs to be shared for that experience to take place,” said Stuart Hanson, chairman of the task force and director of Healthcare Solutions, Citi Retail Services in Chicago.

 

The HIMSS Revenue Cycle Improvement Task Force team has been working for months to develop a new recycle cycle model and infographic to communicate the end vision of a “patient-centered” revenue cycle management process. “Essentially it must communicate what the new revenue cycle model will look like,” Hanson said. “This is a pretty big unveiling.” 

 

The Task Force is laying the groundwork for next generation revenue cycle management tools and processes, and informing industry innovation.  The new consumer-directed world under the ACA is “driven by the increased number of consumers with high deductible health plans,” Hanson said. 

 

The shift towards consumers also reflects patients shopping and spending in a retail-like healthcare system. This requires healthcare organizations to rethink how they interact with, and collect revenues from consumers. 

 

The second big takeaway from the April conference will be collaboration, according to Hanson.

 

“Almost as importantly, healthcare insurance companies and providers need to collaborate more than before,” he said. “We need to do a better job of sharing information between ourselves and with the patient around the patient’s revenue cycle experience.”

 

The task force includes representatives from payers, providers, financial institutions, retail clinics, mobile providers and a variety of revenue cycle consultants and vendors.  

 

Revenue cycle management will also be the topic at HIMSS15 on Sunday, April 12. Healthcare Finance magazine will host the first Revenue Cycle Solutions Summit, a day-long educational program on best practices for revenue cycle management within hospitals.  

 

Among the sessions during the Summit will be “Maintaining Financial Strength and Boosting Patient Satisfaction” from Jeffrey Hurst, SVP of Florida Hospital and “Using KPIs to Monitor and Enhance Patient Financial Communications” from Sandra Wolfskill, an HFMA Director. 

 

During Sunday’s Revenue Cycle Management Summit program, members of the Revenue Cycle Improvement Task Force will provide an overview of their work. 

 

Sunday’s educational program starts at 9 AM in the Vista Ballroom in the McCormick Center. You can register at http://www.revenuecyclesolutionssummit.com/

 

The Monday breakfast session starts at 7 am in the Interoperability Showcase Theatre.  To access this session before the Exhibit Hall opens, arrive at the Grand Concourse between the South and North Hall and a docent will escort you to the Theatre. This session will be followed on Wednesday, April 15 with a “community feedback” session from 8:00 – 9:00, where participants will have an opportunity to share their thoughts on the vision articulated by the infographic.