SHERBORN, Mass. — July 29, 2008 — In a recent article entitled, “Hospital Spending Up, but Changing” (Health Data Management, June 30, 2008), HIMSS Analytics, a market research and consulting unit of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, reported that it expects the hospital information technology market to increase 10 percent in 2008. It also believes hospitals now are in the early stages of a “revenue cycle revolution” where emphasis is renewed on revenue cycle management technology.
Boston Software Systems, the leader in workflow automation technology to the healthcare market, has been instrumental in assisting hospitals across the country in automating their revenue cycle process. “Adoption of revenue cycle management solutions reflects a hospital’s commitment to intelligently managing the business of healthcare which allows a clearer focus on providing quality care and improving the patient experience,” said Steve Cohen, executive vice president at Boston Software Systems.
Automating the capture and distribution of accurate and complete information is vital to the financial health of a hospital and will positively impact the patient experience. Harnessing the power of automation throughout the revenue cycle, enables hospitals to better manage and support end users and fulfill strategic business requirements.
“As hospitals enter the ‘revenue cycle revolution’ they need to examine the hundreds of touch points in a hospital that affect the revenue cycle,” added Cohen. “By automating the movement of data in those areas, hospitals ensure that the data is clean, accurate and complete, establishing the basis for quicker payments in the short term and a faster, more remunerative revenue cycle in the long term.”
According to Dave Garets, president and CEO of HIMSS Analytics, new diagnosis-related group coding requirements, adoption of consumer-directed health plans and the forthcoming claims attachments standards will compel replacement of many existing revenue management systems. This, in turn, will take money away from investments in clinical IT.
“The reliance on manual data entry slows reimbursement and resulting errors can hinder payment while increasing employee workload,” said Rich Temple, national director of Information Technology for Catholic Health Initiatives at Saint Clare’s Health System. “Furthermore, healthcare revenue cycles are being slowed down as organizations work with different vendors, insurance companies, government agencies and various third parties to register, verify, bill and collect revenues. Hospitals are realizing how many tasks are subject to costly inaccuracies.”
As a result of using Boston WorkStation, University Health System, one of the few hospitals to reach stage six ranking in HIMSS Analytics, was able to automate and bring its payment posting system in-house. “Today if we want to add a payer to our payment processing system, it won’t cost $10,000 - $15,000 to develop another script, as it did when we used a third-party vendor. Taking this process in-house has easily recouped the investment in the software and hardware in the first year,” said Brian Stevenson, systems administrator for business information services, University Health System.
Using an automated patient registration system, Mount Auburn Hospital has saved significant lab time and prevented many costly mistakes. “We’ve not only improved the quality of information that accompanies a patient or specimen to the hospital, but we have also been able to realize faster turn-around in billing with fewer corrections. And our lab personnel are using their time to order lab work instead of registering patients,” said Robert Todd, director of CareGroup IS at Mount Auburn Hospital.
Boston WorkStation significantly improved the billing process at Hays Medical. “Scripting has saved us time and money,” said Bill Overbey, CIO and CFO at Hays Medical. “If you had to allocate money to manually creating efficiencies, you probably wouldn’t do it. It just takes too much time, too much money and too much manpower to accomplish it. Fortunately, developing scripts doesn’t take much time, and it creates operational efficiencies throughout the entire hospital.
In addition to healthcare organizations turning to Boston WorkStation, leading providers of healthcare revenue cycle solutions are partnering with Boston Software Systems, including, CareMedic, MedAssest and Denials Management. They are using Boston WorkStation's full functionality and universal connectivity in each of their implementations.
“As hospitals shift their focus to revenue cycle management technology, Boston Software Systems will continue to stay the course in providing hospitals and healthcare vendors with the ability to automate revenue cycle tasks through Boston WorkStation,” added Cohen. “Boston WorkStation has a proven track record of helping healthcare organizations improve revenue cycle management through workflow automation, resulting in more accurate billing and faster reimbursements."
About Boston WorkStation™
Boston WorkStation is a workflow automation and heatlhcare integration technology that provides an environment for on-demand process innovation and development. Boston WorkStation allows healthcare organizations to automate common tasks throughout the organization including revenue cycle projects, interactions with Web sites, integrating new applications, systems and devices, and electronically monitoring and managing user activity.
About Boston Software Systems
Boston Software Systems is the leading standard for workflow automation and system integration software, enabling healthcare organizations to streamline complex business processes and improve productivity. Hundreds of healthcare organizations worldwide respond to regulatory and business initiatives by using Boston WorkStation technology to automate and improve processes throughout their facilities. UNISON accelerates the development of critical dictionary and table synchronization in specific hospital information system environments. Customers include more than 50 HCA hospitals, Mayo hospitals, Stanford Medical Center, CHRISTUS Health, Lutheran Health Network and Tenet Healthcare. Boston Software Systems partners with leading application and system vendors such as McKesson, Siemens, Misys, Orion International and Emdeon. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.bostonworkstation.com or call 866.653.5105.
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Boston Software Systems, Boston WorkStation are trademarks of Boston Software Systems, Inc.
For more information:
Boston Software Systems
Margaret Mayer
978-525-4831
Margaret.mayer@bossoft.com
Schwartz Communications
Davida Dinerman/Wendy Mejia
781-684-0770
bossoft@schwartz-pr.com
