Becker’s Hospital Review interviews Hayes’ Sondra Akrin:
“Revenue cycle teams are critical to the financial success of provider organizations, as they determine patient eligibility, enter required billing data, collect patient co-pays, code claims, track claims, collect payments and follow up on denied claims. If one member of the team does not adequately perform their task, it can mean significant revenue losses for the organization.
But some healthcare organizations struggle to recruit, retain and develop skilled revenue cycle staff for project management, clinical documentation improvement, coding development and other essential revenue cycle functions.
The root of the problem
Many revenue cycle roles are viewed as clerical or administrative in nature, and pay for these positions tends to be comparable to other clerical jobs, says Sondra Akrin, vice president of revenue cycle transformation at Hayes Management Consulting.
However, many revenue cycle positions at healthcare organizations require a greater skill set than typical clerical or administrative roles.
“Whether they’re at the front end of the revenue cycle like checking in patients, or the back end in the business office; these roles have to understand a multitude of payer requirements and the flow of the revenue cycle. They have to understand their customers,” says Ms. Akrin. “But what we see is a lot of organizations not valuing the complexity of those roles. They need to compensate them accordingly to retain and attract people to these roles.”
