Becker's Hospital Review

Opening the Revenue Floodgates In the past 30 years, there was only one month that the hospital collected one million dollars in revenue. In the first weeks after implementing athenaCollector for Hospitals & Health Systems, the hospital started to average almost $900,000 per month—and had two "million dollar months" this calendar year. A Progressive Model At first, Brandon Christensen, Business Office Manager, worried about pushback from billing staff about learning a new system. But there wasn't any. "Nobody likes learning a new system. But we had positive feedback from our business office employees in the first month they were using athenaCollector. That says a lot." Why were employees enthusiastic about athenaCollector from the start? "It was because people saw this is unlike other systems," said Christensen. "athenahealth's model is progressive. They take care of so many business office responsibilities off site. We aren't managing all the billing scrubber details, we're not managing all the follow-up and denials and appeals and re-processing requests. athenahealth takes care of that for us. That keeps our claims going out the door, so we see a steady workflow and uninterrupted revenue." Plus, added Schumann, "We are confident that every single patient account is being monitored. Under the old systems, we didn't have enough staff or smart enough software to ensure that we were touching each account on a continuing basis." With their previous revenue cycle solutions, Christensen explained, "It was impossible to ask a small staff to manage from highest dollar all the way down to zero on aging patient reports. It would have taken them months." Mount Grant General Hospital is located in Hawthorne, Nevada. An approved National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Critical Access Hospital site and Rural Health Clinic site, the hospital serves a population of 4,500 citizens in addition to travelers to and from Las Vegas. Within a few months of implementing athenaCollector for Hospitals & Health Systems, the hospital set new records for revenue. "athenaCollector is an outstanding product," said Greg Schumann, I.T. Manager. "We have things we're still working through, but the billing, the follow up, denial management, coding, and the hold queue—reviewing anything that is not able to be billed—all of that works perfectly." CASE STUDY Mt. Grant General Hospital Hawthorne, NV Organization • Located in Hawthorne, Nevada • Designated as one of the nation's top 35 Critical Access Hospitals • Serves a resident population of 4,500 citizens, plus travelers to and from Las Vegas • 11 licensed acute beds and 24 long term beds in an onsite skilled nursing facility Issues • Billing software that had too many bugs and was slow to update • Staff struggling to handle billing efficiently • Stagnant revenue Solution • athenaCollector for Hospitals & Health Systems Results • Total cash flow at 105.8% of baseline after Q1 2016 • Immediate, record-setting revenue • Instant access to customized financial reports • More efficient use of staff time Critical access hospital sets revenue records with progressive revenue cycle solution

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