Four Health Care Organizations Receive National Revenue Cycle Honors After Performance Improvements as Large as $8.2M

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Three hospitals and one health system were selected from hundreds of hospitals nationwide to receive the 2014 Revenue Cycle Solutions Awards, The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO) announced today.  The Awards recognize institutions' leadership in initiatives to improve financial sustainability and achieve significant financial performance improvements.  These hospitals achieved impressive improvements, including $8.2 million in additional revenue, improved compliance, reduced bad debt, and an increase of $6.1 million in point-of-service collections.

The Awards honored the following work:

• Baptist Beaumont Hospital, a 325-bed hospital in Beaumont, Texas, and a member of Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, had achieved only limited physician support for the hospital's Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) program before engaging The Advisory Board Company; the limited support constrained the program's effectiveness. Through a focused initiative, the hospital pinpointed the biggest opportunities to improve coding and documentation performance and conducted individualized education with the underperforming physicians. They also redesigned core CDI processes to increase efficiency and strengthen staff interactions with physicians. As a result of improved coding accuracy, the hospital was able to receive incremental payments totaling $8.2 million for delivered services in the first 12 months.
• Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, a 628-bed hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, and a division of Baptist Health Systems, saw in its preparation for the rollout of the new ICD-10 coding system that the hospital also had an opportunity to improve clinical documentation under the current ICD-9 coding system.  The health system structured CDI training that covered both ICD-9 and ICD-10 at the same time; doing so, they were able to drive compliance and save significant staff time.
• IU Health Goshen Hospital, a 122-bed hospital in Goshen, Indiana, was facing a rise in uninsured admissions and patient out-of-pocket obligations.  The hospital provided patients greater transparency into patient obligation at the onset of care, in part by implementing a presumptive charity policy, which reviewed every patient household for charity eligibility.  The solution reduced bad debt, increased community benefit, and improved the efficiency of the patient billing process.
• Springhill Medical Center, a 252-bed hospital in Mobile, Alabama, had a large number of patients discharged without their final bill (DNFB) because the hospital struggled with evaluating patient payment responsibility to calculate accurate bill estimates.  The facility launched an initiative across many departments to improve financial performance and link all of the revenue cycle components to one database so frontline staff can see patient responsibility, payment history, and charity eligibility at the onset of care.  Springhill also enabled online bill payment to increase the efficiency of accounts receivable.  Through these initiatives, Springhill increased point-of-service collection by a cumulative $6.1 million over the past four years and decreased DNFB from a high of 9.3% to an average of 5.73%.

The four institutions are among more than 700 hospitals nationwide that are members of The Advisory Board Company's Revenue Cycle Solutions programs—customized solutions that combine research, consulting, training, and technologies that drive world-class revenue cycle performance.  The Award, in its second year, was given at the Revenue Cycle Summit on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

"As hospitals and health systems increasingly face margin pressures from accountable payment contracts and price-sensitive markets, the value of a high-performance revenue cycle has become even more critical," said Zac Stillerman, General Manager, Revenue Cycle Solutions at The Advisory Board Company.  "The Revenue Cycle Solutions Awards winners have risen to national leadership in improving financial sustainability through analytics-driven approaches that prioritize staff engagement and education." 

Detailed case studies are available at http://www.advisory.com/RevCycleAwards.

Hospital and health system executives may register for the free Webconference, "The Keys to Successful Risk-Based Contracting," with The Advisory Board Company's experts on Monday, September 8 at 11:00 a.m. (EDT).

About Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas 
Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas has been serving the community for over 60 years.  The system is dedicated to providing quality health services in a Christian environment in order to improve health care for members of the Southeast Texas community.  Baptist Beaumont Hospital is licensed for 508 beds.  Visit Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas at www.bhset.net.

About Baptist Health Systems 
Baptist Health Systems in Jackson, Mississippi is the parent company of Baptist Medical Center, The Mississippi Hospital for Restorative Care, Baptist Medical Center Leake in Carthage, Mississippi, and a number of related health care services and programs.  For over 100 years, Baptist has served Mississippi and the surrounding states as a Christian-based, non-profit, comprehensive medical center.  In 2014, HealthGrades, America's leading independent health care ratings organization, named Baptist Medical Center as one of America's 100 Best Hospitals for general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and joint replacement.  Visit Mississippi Baptist Health Systems at www.mbhs.org.

About Indiana University Health Goshen 
Indiana University Health Goshen remains committed to improving the health of its community.  And as the health care needs of its community evolve, it continues to meet those needs with compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence.  From primary care physicians to home medical equipment, emergency care to cancer care, IU Health Goshen is committed to education, superior medical treatment, and the latest diagnostics to meet all of a family's healthcare needs.  Visit IU Health Goshen at www.iuhealth.org/goshen.

About Springhill Medical Center 
Springhill Medical Center (SMC) is a 252-bed acute care hospital accredited by The Joint Commission.  Since 1975, Springhill has grown and expanded its services in the southwest Alabama market while maintaining more nurses to each patient for a personal approach.  The medical center provides full surgical capabilities, including open-heart and robotic surgery, as well as complete diagnostic capabilities.  Today, SMC includes the hospital, a unique and comprehensive heart center, senior residence, sleep medicine center, cancer center, athletic club, orthopedic surgery center, wound care and hyperbaric center, an emergency department staffed by all board-certified emergency medicine physicians, and The Endoscopy Center at Springhill.  Visit SMC at www.springhillmedicalcenter.com.

About The Advisory Board Company 
The Advisory Board Company is a global technology, research, and consulting firm partnering with 200,000 leaders in 4,500 organizations across health care and higher education.  Through its innovative membership model, the Company collaborates with executives and their teams to elevate performance and solve their most pressing challenges.  The Company provides strategic guidance, actionable insights, web-based software solutions, and comprehensive implementation and management services.  For more information, visit the firm's website, www.advisory.com.

SOURCE The Advisory Board Company

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