How can RCM leaders foster a culture of innovation and change?
Revenue cycle management (RCM) is the process of managing the financial aspects of healthcare delivery, from patient registration and insurance verification to billing and collections. RCM leaders face many challenges and opportunities in the dynamic and complex healthcare environment, such as regulatory changes, consumer expectations, technology advancements, and competition. How can they foster a culture of innovation and change that supports their goals and adapts to the evolving needs of their stakeholders? Here are some tips to consider.
-
Lisa NeefeHealthcare Revenue Cycle Consultant | Queen of Denials Prevention
-
Mary Fortunato-HabibInnovation Account Manager at Philips|Assistant Professor at UMass Worcester
-
Delgardo FranklinRevenue Cycle Performance Improvement | EHR Implementation/ Optimization | Stakeholder Engagement and Communication |…
The first step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to define your vision and values as an RCM leader. What are your strategic objectives and priorities? What are the core principles and behaviors that guide your decisions and actions? How do you communicate and align your vision and values with your team, your organization, and your partners? By clarifying and articulating your vision and values, you can create a shared purpose and direction that inspires and motivates your people to innovate and change.
-
In my experience as a rev cycle leader, everything positive and productive starts with transparency and integrity starting with leadership. Most importantly, leaders need to learn to not meddle with what’s working and effective. Too many unqualified mid level leaders lacking the appropriate skillset and qualifications come into organizations looking to make unneeded changes simply trying to make a name for themselves.
The second step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to empower your people to take ownership and initiative in their roles and responsibilities. How do you delegate and distribute authority and accountability? How do you encourage and reward creativity and risk-taking? How do you provide feedback and coaching to support learning and improvement? How do you foster collaboration and cross-functional teamwork? By empowering your people, you can unleash their potential and leverage their diverse skills and perspectives to generate and implement new ideas and solutions.
-
Asking questions to guide people towards creative solutions is the first step in fostering risk-taking and encouraging ideas. Asking about the impacts of the idea to other departments or systems, encouraging people to solicit feedback from other areas that may have a stake in process changes can lead them to be better decision makers and supports the creative process.
The third step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to embrace technology as a tool and an enabler for your RCM processes and outcomes. How do you evaluate and adopt new technologies that can enhance your efficiency, accuracy, transparency, and customer satisfaction? How do you integrate and optimize your existing technologies to streamline your workflows and data management? How do you train and equip your people to use technology effectively and securely? How do you leverage technology to monitor and measure your performance and impact? By embracing technology, you can optimize your RCM operations and capabilities and stay ahead of the curve.
The fourth step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to listen to your customers and understand their needs, preferences, and feedback. Who are your customers and what are their pain points and expectations? How do you collect and analyze customer data and insights? How do you engage and communicate with your customers to build trust and loyalty? How do you respond and adapt to your customers' changing demands and behaviors? By listening to your customers, you can tailor your RCM services and solutions to meet their needs and exceed their expectations.
The fifth step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to learn from your failures and embrace them as opportunities for growth and development. How do you define and accept failure as part of the innovation and change process? How do you identify and address the root causes and lessons learned from your failures? How do you share and celebrate your failures and successes with your team and organization? How do you apply your learnings to improve your RCM practices and outcomes? By learning from your failures, you can foster a culture of resilience and continuous improvement.
-
As a leader, it is extremely important to create a psychologically safe environment through empathy. When faced with mistakes, we should look for learning opportunities, instead of playing the blame game. A punitive environment does not allow for curiosity and innovation to flourish. One way to do that is by reframing the mistake as a chance to learn and grow and encouraging an appropriate level of risk taking, even if the outcome may not turn out as intended.
The sixth and final step to foster a culture of innovation and change is to innovate and change continuously. How do you scan and anticipate the external trends and forces that affect your RCM environment? How do you review and update your vision and values, your processes and outcomes, and your technologies and solutions? How do you solicit and implement feedback and suggestions from your people, your customers, and your partners? How do you celebrate and recognize your achievements and progress? By innovating and changing continuously, you can maintain your competitive edge and deliver value to your stakeholders.
-
By 2020, we realised that the existing RCM system was outdated, lacking automation and unable to keep up with the evolving billing and coding regulations. The billing staff was overwhelmed, spending excessive time on manual tasks. By leveraging technology we addressed key pain points such as claim denials, reimbursement delays and coding errors. At RND SOFTECH, the turning point came when we integerated the medical billing software, that bought simplicity of an integrated system, capable of handling claims processing, coding compliance, and billing automation, was a game-changer. Suddenly, the tedious web of paperwork was replaced by a seamless process that accelerated our cash flow and reduced errors.
Rate this article
More relevant reading
-
HealthcareHow can you develop a revenue cycle management team that works well together?
-
Revenue Cycle ManagementHow do you assess and improve your revenue cycle maturity and readiness for change?
-
Corporate FinanceHow can you improve revenue cycle staff performance?
-
HealthcareWhat are the most effective ways to protect your organization from revenue cycle risk?