A few years ago, talking with a friend of mine in the healthcare field, I shared my vision for slashing the administrative burdens plaguing healthcare providers in this country — solutions that do not depend on insurance company reform or government action. I talked about the difference that hospitals and other healthcare systems could make for themselves, their clinicians, and their patients if they only knew what to do.
Frankly, he thought I was chasing a lost cause.
“The issues are too big, too complex, too engrained,” he told me.
I don’t share this story to criticize my friend. I know many healthcare providers in this country are similarly skeptical, and I understand why.
For many years, healthcare administrative burdens have felt like an immovable object. I know it’s easy to feel powerless and to assume that the solutions are too complicated. There have been efforts in the past, and yet administrative costs now account for as much as 40% of U.S. hospital expenses, clinicians spend as much as 50% of their time on administrative functions, and the amount of money healthcare providers must devote to claims adjudication has grown to nearly $26 billion.
The birth of the three-point plan
This feeling of powerlessness is what inspired my three-point plan. I wanted to create a concrete, practical plan for leaders of hospitals and other healthcare systems who want to do something about administrative costs and burdens but are stuck because they’re wondering: Where do I begin? How do I attack this?
Based on my decades of experience addressing these challenges at Signature Performance, this plan is designed as a sort of self-starter kit you can use to:
- Optimize your Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. You can configure your EHR so that it supports efficiency and the patient-clinician relationship instead of acting as a barrier. You just need to talk to the right people, ask the right questions, make sure you have the expertise to execute successfully and adjust your system, processes, workflows and training accordingly.
- Reduce administrative costs to reinvest in care. For example, researchers estimate that U.S. hospitals and physician groups could reduce spending by as much as 20% by optimizing their revenue cycle management. I’ve worked with clients who have reaped even greater rewards by fixing their processes and ditching the ones that add no value.
- Use new technology with intention. It’s tempting to pursue the shiny new object instead of questioning how it will benefit you or assessing the best way to use it after it is acquired. But there are ways to make sure you don’t get caught in this trap.
Watch my introduction to this three-point plan below and learn how to make it work for you. Then visit my Challenges and Solutions page for a deeper dive into the plan’s step-by-step guidance.
I know we all want to do something. I want you to know it’s simpler than you think.
