The healthcare sector is battling increasing operating costs and an ever-growing number of patients, creating the urgent requirement to provide an excellent patient experience and abide by strict regulations.
With the influx of data and a multitude of manual, repetitive processes that require accuracy, automation of operations could be precisely the thing to do for this sector.
Following the example of other mature digital industries such as travel, retail, and financial service, healthcare has improved the customer experience at every step and even before the visit begins with the follow-up treatment.
Improve Patient Experiences Using RPA, AI And Digital Workflows
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A recent Deloitte-Scottsdale Institute survey says, “Most people who took part in the survey are hoping to improve the experience of patients (92 per cent) as the most desired result of the digital transformation.”
Hospitals employ the automation stack to automate non-vertical processes such as staffing and operating IT helpdesks, as well as for vertical tasks like doctor certification or verification of insurance eligibility.
Beyond automating routine tasks, robotic process automation (RPA) is leveraging other technologies such as AI, ML, NLP image recognition, and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) to efficiently and efficiently collect data, extract, analyze, and report the results to the department responsible for the final user.
RPA transforms the lives of doctors, patients, nurses, administrative staff and other personnel.
Some of these processes are:
- Patient Onboarding.
- Scheduling Appointments.
- Health Billing.
- Claims Processing.
- Report Generating.
- Prescription Management.
- Discharge Instructions.
- Audit procedures.
- Settlement of Account.
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3 Ways To Improve Patient Experiences
Here are a few areas hospitals could strive to improve to ensure an enhanced patient experience.
#1. At Pre-Registration
The patient’s information and insurance may be collected before the start of service. Pre-registration details are collected before patient arrival to allow inpatient or outpatient treatment.
This ensures the seamless flow of the subsequent interactions with patients.
#2. Check for eligibility and registration
Preexisting medical conditions are documented, and the payee’s contact information is reviewed to satisfy the established clinical, financial and regulatory requirements.
Following the scheduled appointment, the patient’s insurance will be confirmed.
#3. Claim Submission
The claims could be filed in one piece at a time by filling in information on an online form for claims on the portal, or batches of claims could be submitted using the practice management system used by the provider.
Reports that verify receipt of the claim and identify any errors before the adjudication process and payment can be generated automatically.
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#4. Remittance Processing
The payment associated with a bill for medical treatment can be evaluated to decide if it is appropriate to approve or deny the charges.
The hospital’s system for accounts receivable will automatically request verification of claims for insurance processing electronically whenever it is it is possible.
It can also submit explicit claims and appeals to maximize net collection within the shortest time.
In the past, hospitals had massive personnel who entered data to create, collate the documents, verify their accuracy and address, make corrections as required, scan the documents into databases, and transcribe data in electronic formats.
In actuality, up to 33 cents per dollar spent on medical care is spent on the back office of healthcare. Insurance and billing account for over half of these administrative expenses.
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These shocking statistics detract from the hospital’s primary purpose of providing care for patients at a reasonable cost.
Hospitals house various applications to perform multiple tasks, from scheduling patients and settling payments to managing electronic health records and verifying insurance claims.
Robotic process automation lets healthcare facilities automatize their processes without being invasive.
RPA operates outside the old wall of the critical systems of the hospitals and connects to the applications to automate processes with no complicated coding.
Selecting an automation system compatible with the most critical applications within the hospital’s application landscape will allow it to automate its vital processes without requiring time-consuming programming or data transfer.
Fifty per cent of U.S. healthcare providers will invest in RPA within three years. Gartner
As healthcare evolves toward quality-based care available to patients no matter where they are, each step in the supply chain will need to be analyzed for its automation possibilities.
The scale for automation is critical in determining the provider’s current costs.
It is estimated that the CAQH index estimates the healthcare industry’s expenses for conducting administrative transactions at $39 billion.
If we could complete the automation of some manual transactions, the additional $16.3 billion in costs could be prevented.
Patients expect the same level of service in healthcare as other industries that rely on documents like banking and insurance. Healthcare is now the time to take the lead and provide.
