I recently attended The Becker's Hospital IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in Chicago. It was an honor to be asked to speak at the conference and part of the event.
Thank you to those who attended my presentation. Jodi Frei and I presented to a packed audience with over 100+ people in attendance. We spoke about Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Successfully understanding your revenue at risk in your organization. We discussed strategies to improve efficiencies in registration, insurance authorization, clinical documentation improvement, supply chain and denials management.
Jodi shared financial lessons learned from Northwestern Medical Center having recently completed a 12-month system upgrade and rebuild to MEDITECH's 6.1 platform. Metrics that matter, strategies to best prevent revenue loss in times of transition, and optimization of quality based reimbursement are among the topics to be covered.
For the past 2 years, I've had the privilege of presenting at Becker's. This year I focused on the quality reporting and revenue at risk in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations are transitioning from volume-based to value-based care reimbursement models. The future for healthcare organizations includes value-based care models, advanced payment models, and bundled payments so it makes sense to provide some insight into how this is and will impact revenue cycle management.
The Becker's Health IT and Revenue Cycle conference has significantly grown over the past couple years. There were over 3000 registered attendees at the three-day show, a record, up 500% from last year. Last year, Pavan Attur, Chief Information Officer at St Michael's Medical Centre in New Jersey, and I presented on Meaningful Use Audit preparedness and working effectively with Figliozzi & Company during the audit so you can avoid a financial recoupment.
Here's my summary of the major event themes for 2017:
- Cybersecurity - Phishing, infrastructure security, it's not enough to educate users on the rights and wrongs of cybersecurity. Software sophisticated detection features to help prevent phishing.
- Revenue Cycle Optimization - As we transition from volume-based reimbursement to value-based, outcomes reimbursements, the revenue cycle models will significantly change and revenue cycle consultants will be positioned to be leaders in this transformation.
- Cloud-Based Software and Services - 21, the number of vendors who mentioned cloud-based software or services as their marketing material. Software as a service offerings are very popular. As the industry shifts in this direction, organizations still have concerns with privacy and security with the offerings.
- Analytics and Pop Health Reporting - Value-based care, Population Health, focusing on improving quality and outcomes with the help of predictive analytics software. Identifying and managing cohorts of patients for revenue optimization.
I explored some of the most famous sights in Chicago with colleagues and friends. The first night we eat with a small group at Quartino's Ristorante for an authentic Italian meal. We ordered one of everything on the menu, so much food!
We did the walk up North Michigan Ave. up to North Rush Street, had dinner at Dublin Bar and Grill, on the way back stopped by The Redhead Piano Bar to enjoy some classic songs with the pianist. We stopped by the Dublin Bar & Grill for some Irish pub specials on draft.
The last day we stopped by the Indian Garden Restaurant for some quite all you can eat buffet lunch. Everything was great, the naan, the spicing curry chicken, shrimp curry, the goat biryani. My good friend Pavan selected the restaurant. He is an incredible cook and loves Indian food. I like to learn about the culture of the food I'm eating. I learned about the Mukhwas you eat at the end of the meal. Near the exit, there is an assortment of seeds, sugar candy, and oils. He explained the Mukhwas is more than an after-snack meal but helpful with aiding the digestive tract and helps as a mouth freshener. I'm still trying to acquire a taste for the after-meal snack, Mukhwas, maybe soon!
Ed Marx gave an inspirational and motivational keynote speech. Pavan introduced me to Ed last year at Becker's. He has inspired me to be a better person, manager, and leader at my company. He is truly a great person.
I left the Becker's conference with excitement. The Healthcare landscape is in a significant technological transformation and we are right in the middle of it. It's a great time to be in healthcare.
I'll be communicating my analysis of the ONC Certification Program Updates published back in September.
