Revenue cycle outsourcing rescues health systems money, oversight, executives claim

Though the cost savings tied to outsourcing revenue cycle operations for huge-scale health systems can be appealing, healthcare finance leaders claim there are more than a few details to think before handing over these procedures to a vendor.

In fact, transitioning from managing in-house revenue cycle operations to putting that belief in a third-party firm can be downright difficult if managed in haste.

John Kerndl, senior vice president and operations chief financial officer for LifePoint Health, oversees finances at a hospital network that has its revenue cycle operations split between 2 different organizations. Of the 48 hospitals in the system, 46 utilize Parallon and 2 uses Conifer.

In deciding to outsource various years ago, there were 3 primary considerations Kerndl and his team examined. The 1^st was freeing up administrative teams to concentrate on other areas.

The 2^nd consideration was making certain the system was holding up its end on the regulatory and compliance side.