Revenue Cycle Industry to See Changes in 2015

The New Year will be a year of changes for professionals in hospital revenue cycle, notes a new article from Healthcare Finance News. The biggest changes impacting the industry include the move from fee-for-service to population-based payment systems, as well as the possible implementation of ICD-10.

According to the article, it will become critical for those at the department level of hospitals to understand foundational revenue cycle management, a task which will be left up to revenue cycle management directors. Additionally, the article notes that uncertainty regarding whether or not congress will implement ICD-10 in October 2015 will have a large impact on hospitals, primarily because of the revision's effect on coding procedures.

“[IDC-10] will be a bigger change on the hospital side because they now have to code based on procedure codes instead of revenue codes,” Laurie DeSantis, vice-president of operations for HCL, explained to the website. “The unknowns are especially large because the payers haven’t released their payment policies yet. It is hard to say that even when the coding is correct how the payers will react.”

Over the years, Nearterm has developed a strategy that provides coding expertise anywhere in the United States to deal with existing requirements, as well as the requirements imposed by the implementation of ICD-10.

Read the entire article on Healthcare Finance News.

Revenue Cycle Management Outsourcing Projected to Expand

Investment in revenue cycle management (RCM) outsourcing is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2 percent through to 2019, according to a recent report from MicroMarket Monitor, a market research firm.

The report, which examines North America’s revenue cycle management market, was prepared through “extensive primary and secondary research.” The report’s findings are supported by previous reports which indicate that the RCM market is growing.

“RCM has become one of the most popular functions for healthcare providers to outsource, due to its critical importance and significant challenges associated with managing internal functionalities of hospitals and clinics, in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” the report notes. “The transformation of the U.S. healthcare facility is anticipated to ensure widespread adoption of these outsourced services.”

Consistent with this trend and as one of these outsourced RCM providers, Nearterm has experienced increased demand for our services, particularly for our nationwide Interim Management, Technicians (Coders, Billers and Collectors) and Healthcare Executive Search.

The entire report can be bought on the MicroMarket website.