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The casual observer can be excused for believing that a single government web site represents the extent of healthcare technology. But behind the scenes, the following major technology trends will have a significant impact on the healthcare industry in 2014 and on revenue cycle management (RCM).
Read MoreI recently interviewed our Senior Integration Support Engineer, Boaz Ron, related to how he felt about going into a branch. His thoughts were the following: if I can get a deposit done through my phone, computer or ATM in under 20 seconds, why does a teller take longer? An ATM can dispense cash faster than tellers and there is always some old slow guy holding up the line.
Read MoreThe Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, is unlikely to bring together Republicans and Democrats. But ACA is bringing innovation to healthcare payments arena. Standards within the law make it easier to reconcile electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments, most commonly Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions, received by providers with the corresponding electronic remittance advice (ERAs), including EDI 835 or EOBs.
Read MoreThere is a paradox in branch capacity planning right now. Retail wants more revenue, but branch transaction volumes have declined nearly 35%, according to a FMSI 2013 Teller Line Study, due to additional online products and RDC offerings; which mean less walk-in traffic. In response, technologists are trying to innovate the branch experience, while bringing a more personalized and sales-oriented encounter. In some respects, the branch is becoming less relevant, except when the customer “needs” to solve a problem and they want interaction.
Read MoreFinTECH’s annual top 100 companies in financial technology is comprised of a dynamic list of both public and private companies generating tremendous revenues in the financial industry, both in the US and globally. The interesting distribution of these companies illustrates the revenue power of the top companies.
Read MoreAs we end another year of relatively stable check volumes in the financial industry, there are a number of cost-effective alternatives with excellent and proven return on investment which should be strong considerations for your 2014 budget. Although there is a decline in check volumes, it’s a stable decline, which implies predictability and less risk. Also, as product adoption curves of distributed capture points increase, a financial institution can better plan for significant improvements for each workflow.
Read MoreAccording to a new survey by Black Book, the consulting business is booming in healthcare revenue cycle management; and rightly so! Challenges that executives cited for updating RCM projects include: 77 percent have not begun a strategic plan for transforming RCM solutions for known deadlines because of lack of internal experts to do so and 80 percent of CIOs said they do not have the IT staff in-house to transform RCM end-to-end.
Read MoreA recent article in Banking Strategies, The Strategic Implications of Tellers Selling, dissects the concept of traditional tellers evolving into sales people at the branch for walk-in clients. When presented in an orderly manner, the concept brings a fresh feel to the irony of the bank branch; leverage branch resources to drive revenue and increase transaction processing efficiency while branch volume declines. Tellers selling financial services can provide a great opportunity, but there is the possibility of “heartburn” for customer experience.
Read MoreCheck fraud losses in the US were last benchmarked and estimated at $893M for financial institutions from a 2011 ABA Deposit Account Fraud Survey Report. However, one of the main considerations in overall losses which was not incorporated were retailer losses. No one knows the exact number, but we have spoken to several consultants who estimate it at 10X the losses of banks. This event occurs when a fraudster purchases goods from a retail location with a fraudulent check and then departs with the product/goods. If the bank of first deposit, or paying bank, identify it as fraudulent, many times the retailer loses.
Read MoreA recent Gartner report highlighted “5 Cloud Trends in 2013 and Beyond”. Have you ever heard of how cloud computing aims to create “Webscale” systems, which are large configurations that have this ability to expand and contract as needed? They can be configured quickly, and yet go away quickly too. No longer are “large scale projects” a problem in a cloud hosted environment. A good example in healthcare payments would be a project to convert a large back-log of explanation of benefits forms. In this project, a large virtual cloud could be created with high capacity for a few days…then it goes away.
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