Adjustment Posting And Billing Edits Are Top Areas Where Automation Is Applied In Healthcare Revenue Cycle Operations

Alpha Health, the first Unified Automation™ company for revenue cycle management in healthcare, released results of a national survey designed to assess adoption of automation in revenue cycle operations at health systems and hospitals across the U.S. More than 66 percent of health systems and hospital CFOs and revenue cycle leaders say their organizations are currently using automation in their revenue cycle operations. According to the survey, adjustment posting, billing edits and claim status are among the most commonly automated revenue cycle functions.

The survey was commissioned by Alpha Health and conducted through the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s (HFMA) Pulse Survey program. The survey was fielded between May 19, 2020 and June 22, 2020 among 587 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders at hospitals and health systems across the United States. The survey has a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

“Automation is most strategically applied to areas of the revenue cycle that prevent errors leading to delayed, underpaid or denied claims. However, the survey results demonstrate that many organizations may slip into the pitfall of only applying automation to resolve errors created in other stages of the revenue cycle, rather than using automation to prevent those errors in the first place. Focusing additional automation effort on activities like prior authorizations, eligibility checks and claim status can help ensure automation tools not only increase the efficiency of revenue cycle teams, but also improve accuracy,” said Malinka Walaliyadde, co-founder and CEO of Alpha Health. “Moreover, these are often the areas of the revenue cycle with the highest volume of activities, thereby providing the largest and fastest return on investments in automation.”

Survey respondents were asked, “Does your organization currently use any form of automation, or are you currently in the process of implementing automation in your revenue cycle operations?”

Adjustment Posting And Billing Edits Are Top Areas Where Automation Is Applied in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Operations, According to Survey
Does your organization currently use any form of automation, or are you currently in the process of implementing automation in your revenue cycle operations?

Survey respondents who indicated they currently use automation in their revenue cycle operations were also asked, “In which of the following areas of revenue cycle operations do you automate some or all of the work?” Respondents were allowed to select all that apply.

Adjustment Posting And Billing Edits Are Top Areas Where Automation Is Applied in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Operations, According to Survey
In which of the following areas of revenue cycle operations do you automate some or all of the work?

According to the survey, the most common areas in which automation is applied is consistent across both health systems and hospitals as well as by organizations of all sizes based on net patient revenues.

About Alpha Health

At Alpha Health we believe every dollar spent on healthcare matters because healthcare matters to everyone. The first Unified Automation™ company for healthcare, Alpha Health uses the same machine learning approaches that made driverless cars possible to provide health systems with a single solution for healthcare revenue cycle management. Alpha Health’s proprietary Unified Automation™ technology operates within a healthcare system’s existing electronic health record and revenue cycle infrastructure. Alpha Health’s Unified Automation™ brings together the best of people, data and technology to efficiently, accurately and autonomously navigate the complex state of medical reimbursement in the United States. This enables health systems to reduce their cost of care and be better stewards of the healthcare dollar. Alpha Health is based in the heart of Silicon Valley.