Orbograph’s Healthcare Payment & Revenue Cycle Management Predictions
And now, OrboGraph’s Healthcare Payment and Revenue Cycle Management Predictions…
Just as we did in the check payments arena, we’ll give our best guess on 2017 predictions. Usually, our predictions are a bit on the conservative side. Why? Because the media likes to hype new payment mechanisms, but adoption is always slower than what the innovation pundits say.
Wait for it… Wait for it… Boom…
- We predict that progress will be made in the adoption of electronic remittance (EDI 835 adoption) processing volumes — finally. Look for the CAQH (Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare), webinar next Thursday reviewing their 2016 CAQH Index® Findings: Healthcare Industry Trends in Electronic Business Transaction Adoption, Costs and Savings. It’s a big picture view of the market. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t always correlate to granular levels or market segments. For example, large hospitals are usually way ahead of small hospitals in adoption, but there are trends within each market segment which warrant analysis. Overall, the numbers could improve by as much as 10%.
- EOB volumes will be surprisingly strong. This contradicts the above statement to some degree. Overall, the healthcare market is growing and claim volume is predicted to increase by 8% per year. So, paper will “claim” a percentage of this.
- The number of correspondence letters will continue to rise as well. Actually, it may take another jump. We saw increases temporarily around ICD-10. New changes are coming in 2017…
- Hospitals and physician groups will focus on profitability as MACRA and ObamaCare changes continue to drive change in reimbursements. They may even look to reduce FTE’s… although this is always a sticking point in nonprofits.
Look for OrboGraph to release its own study in late January which will challenge some of the core market premises in paper remittance volumes, Reassociation, and denials processing.
Off to 2017 we go!