On November 30th, 2022, the world changed forever. Artificial intelligence (AI) became accessible to the public through a tool called ChatGPT.
Read moreFriends, countrymen, lend me your ears. I speak not to disprove of our healthcare system, but here I am to speak what I do know. We all did love the system once, and not without cause.
Read moreAutomating authorization for care payment to providers reduces the administrative burden on physicians, allowing them to spend more time with their patients for better clinical outcomes.
Read moreHealthcare organizations are losing billions of dollars through denied claims. While some claim denials could lead to significant healthcare revenue declines, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) found that approximately 65% of claim denials were never corrected and then re-submitted to payers for reimbursement.
Read moreRisk Adjustment Factor (RAF) scores are the essential component of the model used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to predict costs for beneficiaries in various risk adjustment models.
Read moreThe Gaps in Healthcare Technology: Healthcare technology is revolutionizing how care is delivered, affecting the lives of providers, patients, payers, and everyone else in between, resulting in a significant shift in the industry.
Read morePoorly Defined Workflows Lead To Worse Outcomes: Healthcare is among the top industries that require proper operational workflow management to ensure all activities occur perfectly. In a medical center setting, several activities occur at once and it’s not easy to manage and monitor all variables without appropriate processes in place.
Read moreHealth systems can thrive only when revenues are collected accurately and economically. But complex payer rules and systems bog down recoveries for patient services. This drives up staffing and software costs meant to improve results.
Read moreA large healthcare analytics company needed to expand its HCC coding operations. At the time, Vee Healthtek was very experienced in many different coding disciplines but had no prior experience in HCC coding. We wanted the business, but weren’t sure if we should pursue it.
Read moreThe U.S. spends over $8,250 per capita on health care every year. That's 22% higher than the next highest country and 170% higher than the average of the 50 highest-spending countries in the world!
Read moreTransition takes on many faces – a company may update its business platforms, change its ownership structure or encounter the need to take strong measures to correct its financial situation. In all of these cases, having a managed services partner who can grab the steering wheel during the storm is essential to staying on course.
Read moreIn 2014, hospitals and health systems faced immense challenges as they approached ICD-10 mandates. According to a 2014 Sterling Associates survey of 650 hospitals, approximately 50% expected to outsource ICD-10 coding services come October 2015—an increase from the 19% already outsourcing at the time.
Read moreA true 360-degree understanding of all parties within the healthcare ecosystem isn’t just to be preferred, it is absolutely a prerequisite to a thriving business. The traditional understanding of the delicate eco-system among the three critical players in the insurance industry are: patient, outside payer, Doctors/Hospital
Read moreIf you've been in business for any length of time, chances are you've come across the phrase, "eating your own dog food," which I understand to mean "using your own product or service to demonstrate its effectiveness." After all, if your company has developed something you want others to buy, doesn’t it make sense to use it internally? Doesn’t that show confidence?
Read moreExperience with AR follow up and denial transactions across 20 million account touches on leading practice management systems leaves us continually driving for higher reimbursements.
Read moreA dejected executive at a conference reported how much she's spending on technology and how little benefit her team extracts. "We need technology that works." Her points hit home as she chronicled her experiences, stating that: Expensive software prevents effective processes, Fragmented systems don't integrate and integrated systems aren't flexible, KPI improvements diminish investment returns
Read moreThe smart money always stays long on the value of interpersonal communications. Client stay long on partners who understand that. Arguably no division of business within a company holds more client responsibility than the call center.
Read moreA large hospital system from the east coast was concerned about poor documentation and its effect on their RAF (Risk Adjustment Factor). The data for the hospital system’s geographical location indicated a sick patient population of 44%, however, their hospital system data recorded the sick patient population at 35%
Read moreTraditionally, Accounts Receivables (A/R) work was a manual process leveraging callers attempting to track down owed monies. But our clients want to receive cash faster, reduce losses, identify and correct issues that delay payments, and move to a more prescriptive denials management process.
Read moreHealthcare is undergoing significant change. The shift from fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based healthcare payment models demands out-of-the-box thinking to meet new challenges. Leading organizations are beginning to leverage technology by shifting resources from back office support to patient-facing positions.
Read moreAssessing an Outsourcing Option for Robotic Process Automation: Bots, the end-product of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), are currently all the rage in health care. Working without breaks nor needing shift changes, and without requiring sick, personal, or vacation days, bots streamline manual repetitive processes across multiple user interfaces.
Read moreAn academic hospital system from the East Coast was struggling with their oncology, infusion and interventional radiology (IR) medical coding management. Their incumbent coding vendor had been delivering poor quality and was failing to manage case volume. The group that had acquired the hospital system placed a high emphasis on running lean and efficient operations.
Read moreAlthough health plans annually perform both Risk Adjustment reviews and HEDIS quality abstractions, there is significant duplication of efforts when obtaining the charts needed for both programs because there is often little communication between them. Imagine the frustration at a provider’s office while they fax the same records to the same health plan, but to two different fax numbers.
Read moreAs business continues to evolve and as mergers and acquisitions increase, the need to rethink operational workflow has never been more apparent. As a labor-intensive industry that is experiencing change almost daily, the healthcare industry is at the forefront of this new frontier.
Read moreIt’s probably easy to believe that with the technological advances available today, consistent, quality customer service is no longer important to businesses. Everything is automated and it sometimes appears computers and robots can do most any job cheaper, faster and better.
Read moreThe story of Vee Healthtek and its ability to grow as a Business Process Management solution is reminiscent of the David and Goliath story of Compaq Computers taking on IBM in the 1980’s.
Read moreThe economics of health care is complex and highly regulated. Health systems, hospitals, physician practices, ACOs and providers of all types find it harder and harder to stay out of the red. Efficiencies must be gained, and healthcare business executives looking to alternative delivery models and cost cutting measures where possible.
Read moreProper Coding And Top HCC Diagnoses: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic disease is responsible for seven of ten deaths each year, and treating people with chronic diseases accounts for 86% of our nation’s total healthcare costs.
Read moreThere are multiple processes in the healthcare revenue cycle world that considerably ramp up in activity on a periodic basis. This is the story of how Vee Healthtek solved a hospital’s last-minute problem when they couldn’t finish it alone.
Read moreThe manual processes being used by health plans and provider groups lack sustainability, in an environment realizing a rapid expansion of value-based care payment models.
Read moreTeamwork in a Risk Adjustment Program. The Process within the Process: In the best and most stable of times, change in any kind of business strategy can be risky.
Read moreThere is increasing pressure to enhance healthcare innovation, as well as increase the migration of functional services offshore. Historically, healthcare delivery organizations used offshore partners to manage non-core activities.
Read moreA large healthcare analytics client of Vee Healthtek had a problem. How could they provide quality assurance (“QA”) to hundreds of thousands of scanned images in a six-week period? It wasn’t feasible for the client to hire staff for such a short-term project or train temporary personnel because of concerns relating to quality and speed to market
Read moreThe turmoil within and around the U.S. healthcare and medical services sector has stretched many enterprises to their financial limits. It is generally agreed that starting a project from scratch is both time consuming and expensive, with no absolute guarantee that the effort will end in success.
Read morePhysicians today cite the administrative burden added to the work of patient care as the main reason for burnout. Chief among those administrative burdens was documenting in the electronic health record (EHR).
Read moreIn late 2013, many experienced and successful joint-venture, urgent care organizations were faced with a major problem. Delivering high quality work, with world-class customer service, while undergoing rapid growth was a challenge for most.
Read moreErrors on prior authorizations were an ongoing problem for a healthcare system in the New Jersey area. Increased denials and other issues were leading to upset patients and a loss of revenue for the client.
Read moreChildren’s Hospital AR Problem: A large children’s hospital, repeatedly ranked as one of “America's Best Children's Hospitals,” had a rapidly increasing AR problem. Despite having a positive cash flow and a rapidly growing business line, the hospital could no longer afford to let their AR rise.
Read moreThe current healthcare environment is creating one of the most active hospital and health system consolidations in history. Independent hospitals in particular have been caught up in the trend of consolidation.
Read moreThe current healthcare environment is creating one of the most active hospital and health system consolidations in history. Independent hospitals in particular have been caught up in the trend of consolidation.
Read moreVee Healthtek needed a tool for managing and navigating the tumultuous payer services market for a client. They needed to identify a way to support multiple disciplines in one, consistent, uniform tool.
Read moreIn the healthcare market, patients continue to ask the question: what is it going to cost for my service or procedure? There are many factors involved, making it very difficult to determine the actual cost to the patient.
Read moreThe healthcare enterprise is riddled with opportunities for playing intermediary. At its most basic, however, health care is simple: patient wants/needs care from a provider that can help them feel better.
Read moreHype is very important to a business’ brand. Every business wants their brand to represent something special, unique, and valuable. Moreover, delivering hype to existing clients is extremely rewarding.
Read moreRevenue cycle management continues to grow more complex. There are ever-changing regulations, the ongoing transition to value-based reimbursement (VBR) models, different requirements by payers, and the pressure by healthcare organizations to maximize cash collections.
Read moreThe Affordable Care Act prompted many innovative care delivery and payment reform initiatives to address both the daunting growth of healthcare costs and less than optimal patient care outcomes.
Read moreIn just a few short months, the events of 2020 changed everything in the healthcare industry. When COVID-19 hit, it immediately raised issues that few experts could have forecasted.
Read moreAs the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc worldwide, hospitals and health care systems were increasingly at risk for financial crisis as they faced organizational challenges.
Read morePayer prior authorizations are expensive and administratively daunting. A high failure rate lowers care outcomes and drains revenue. However, we’ve found that process discipline and automation unshackles clinical staff, with big boosts to care quality and revenue.
Read moreThe year 2020 offered the difficult realization that the lack of sufficient public health data systemically hindered the U.S. healthcare infrastructure’s ability to timely fight a pandemic.
Read moreAnesthesiology practices are particularly vulnerable to Medicare audits because of the unique complexities of the billing process when it comes to time calculation, coding, and other areas.
Read moreRevenue cycle processes have had to continuously evolve over the years to keep pace with the rapid changes occurring in the healthcare industry. As a result, RCM vendor partners are now utilizing technology that hospitals do not have access to on their own.
Read moreIn the 2003 film, “Lost in Translation,” character Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray, struggles to communicate effectively with a Japanese director while filming a commercial.
Read moreBest-selling author and physician Eric Topol wrote, “If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.” (The Patient Will See You Now; 2015).
Read moreAccording to the 2019 statistics released by CMS for “Common Causes of Improper Payment Error Categories”: 59.5% of cases are due to insufficient documentation
Read moreAlmost 50% of U.S. healthcare providers plan to increase their spending on RPA in the next three years. The COVID-19 pandemic situation put additional emphasis on optimizing cost and addressing the scarcity of resources.
Read moreThe demand and cost of healthcare services continues to increase at a relentless pace. For many physicians and health systems, they are scrutinized by governing bodies, commercial payers, and “consumer-minded” patients to decrease the cost of care while maintaining its overall quality.
Read moreIn the United States, healthcare payers lose billions of dollars every year to insurance fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA). The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has designated Medicare as a high-risk program since 1990 because of its size, complexity, and susceptibility to improper payments.
Read moreIn healthcare, a no-show is a patient that misses a scheduled appointment without proper cancellation. Reducing no-shows can have a tremendous, positive impact on a practice resulting in improved efficiency, reduced costs, and improved patient outcomes.
Read moreRisk adjustment has been a mainstay of Vee Healthtek for the past several years. We have excelled at retrospective, concurrent and prospective reviews. Our HCC coders have abstracted codes for risk adjustment from medical records.
Read moreThe epidemic of COVID-19 began in December 2019, springing a surprise on the healthcare community. Scientists and the medical community have a good understanding of viruses that impact the global population on a massive scale.
Read moreIn 2020, the world was impacted by a pandemic that changed the way that businesses operated, requiring office locations to fully shut down in impacted areas.
Read moreWe’ve all heard the stories or know somebody who was impacted. It may even be you. Somebody needed medical care and they looked for the best physician they could find. The procedure was performed and the bill was submitted to the insurance carrier; unfortunately, the resulting patient bill left them in shock.
Read moreManual processes have contributed to roughly $400 billion per year in unnecessary spending and write-offs caused by the complex rules and regulations, multiple parties coordinating care, and antiquated systems.
Read moreWhat are the most crucial aspects of an effective patient-provider encounter? Most can agree the primary goal is to prevent ailments or to cure them. For the patient, proper treatment of any health issue begins with a visit to the doctor and complying with treatment.
Read moreThe Challenge Around Provider Data - Throughout the healthcare industry, there is a vital need for accurate data about providers, yet organizations struggle to acquire and maintain the information they need to perform the most fundamental processes.
Read moreAre robots taking over the world? New, sophisticated automation built on deep learning, machine learning, and artificial intelligence can produce accurate work at incredible speeds – results that outperform the best human workers. What threats does automation pose and what can I do about it?
Read moreThere is no question the global shift which occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every industry, and none more so than the Healthcare industry. Pressing rewind and thinking back to the beginning of 2020, had you ever experienced a telehealth or virtual care visit?
Read moreIs it possible to have coding services performed virtually on demand, like we use electricity or water in our homes? Yes, it can be done. Below I will describe how to achieve utility like on demand coding services and the benefits that will accrue from it.
Read moreInterest is growing in Risk Adjustment (RA). The number of healthcare groups and plans participating in RA is ever-growing. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, but not without challenges.
Read moreArtificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), two of the most exciting technologies of modern times, are on the verge of merging. While RPA aims to streamline the mundane, repetitive everyday tasks, AI adds the capability to think smart.
Read moreExponential Growth in Data Collection and Sharing within Healthcare Technology - Data is in every facet of today’s modern society. Not only is there an exponential increase in the volume of data, but there is also more data in more places. The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 64.2 zettabytes in 2020.
Read moreSome of the most ground-breaking capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) include listening, speaking, writing, and understanding human language. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subset of AI that extracts meaning from human language.
Read moreMerger and Acquisition Activity Leads to Historical High Credit Balance Opportunity Vee Healthtek works with a leading gastrointestinal (GI) practice management company in the Southeastern United States that focuses on building partnerships with physicians and practices across the country.
Read moreDenial management is an essential part of revenue cycle management and improved cash flow. Through this process, practices and hospitals can investigate every unpaid claim, find trends, and appeal the rejection of a claim.
Read moreThe disparate and disjointed data silos across various hospital departments constitute the biggest decision-making bottleneck. They impede the gathering of real-time, actionable information about the hospital’s financial key performance indicators (KPIs).
Read moreIn care delivery, 94% of physicians say prior authorizations (PAs) result in delays. Patients go untreated for longer because of an opaque, complicated approval process. Or they just abandon care as being too hard
Read more“My interaction with the patient in the exam room has been lost and replaced with large amounts of data entry on my part. I click away, staring at the screen and barely have time to make eye contact with my patient. This is the greatest loss, in my opinion.”
Read moreThe Hierarchical condition category (HCC) coding division at Vee Healthtek was growing quickly. Staffed with over 500 coders, Vee Healthtek required efficiency in mass chart volume management with superior quality standards. A high demand for experience certified HCC coders increased wages and created challenges with recruitment and retention.
Read moreA large ambulatory surgery center was using a competitor for its coding services, although was facing large volumes of unbilled charts and low quality on the work being completed. They needed an immediate solution and quick implementation to turn around their situation, they contacted Vee Healthtek to step in and help alleviate the situation
Read moreA large medical group, located in Connecticut, is the physician group associated with a hospital client of Vee Healthtek for facility coding. Through a referral from the hospital, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for the medical group reached out to Vee Healthtek for solutions to resolve issues faced by the organization.
Read moreEvery healthcare organization is faced with rising costs, staffing shortages, and increasing administrative requirements by payers to be reimbursed for the services they render to care for their patients
Read more