Industry
Travel Medicine
Case Study
CharmHealth delivers custom billing automation tools, resulting in an 8x increase in net revenue allowing a Colorado physician group to focus on higher-value care
Results
800% Increase in claims processed* | +8x Increase in net revenue* | 70+ →7 days 10 fold decrease in A/R days*
COVID came upon us quickly and was quite overwhelming to the entire world, so when it came down to providing vaccinations, there wasn't a good process in place.
When COVID-19 rapidly spread in 2020, Dr. John Savage, DO- founder of Care on Location and a Board-certified emergency physician- was entrusted by Colorado public health organizations to provide care for COVID-positive patients across the state.
To meet unprecedented demand, Dr. Savage implemented a customizable vaccine administration platform that streamlined patient registration, insurance collection, and vaccine documentation. This enabled patients to safely access COVID-19 services through drive-through locations, where they could remain in their vehicles and submit information using kiosk tablets.
Over just eight months, Care on Location successfully served more than 76,000 patients, demonstrating the power of technology-enabled healthcare delivery during a public health crisis.
The Challenge
Despite the vaccine administration program’s success, insurmountable issues regarding billing, and insurance reimbursement arose in the months that followed.
There were several inherent errors in the overall process, many of which sprung from intake software limitations. Of the 76,000 patients, Dr. Savage had served, information was either missing or incorrect for over 60% of this group; the remaining 40% required insurance verification. This placed a severe burden on his billers and administrative staff.
Dr. Savage's practice began to drown. His only option was to resolve these challenges. "I was definitely struggling; I was under a lot of pressure,” said Dr. Savage.
He began with several attempts to alleviate the problem. He initially had his in-house biller look at the problem. With 76,000 patients served, the task scale was huge, however. “A single biller had a tough time keeping up with seventy-some-thousand vaccinations," said Dr. Savage.
Seeing his previous attempts futile, he tried hiring multiple third-party billers hoping for a more streamlined claim processing approach. Still, traditional billing services were unable to find a solution that was feasible or efficient. Despite two months of effort, third-party billers had barely scratched the surface. There were multiple system errors and claim denials making the process exceedingly inefficient, expensive, and slow. After three months, Dr. Savage’s billing team had successfully addressed the needs of only 5,000/76,000 patients (6%)
He turned to CharmHealth's billing tech team of his EHR Provider, CharmHealth for a deeper look. CharmHealth's audit revealed three main challenge areas.
The Search for a Tech Partner
Solution success depended on vendor expertise in understanding billing process workflows as well as software development. Specifically, intelligent automation was critical to reduce the administrative load.
“A better claim submission method would be to automate the process rather than relying on manual procedures,” Dr. Savage shares.
THE MUST-HAVES
There were several must-haves for Dr. Savage's dire situation. He required a vendor who has a/an
- in-depth understanding of billing process workflows, and
- knowledge of software development-- applying intelligent automation was critical to reducing the administrative load.
- The turnkey billing solution that is economical and within budget parameters
- complete in a timely manner-- the practice needed to stay afloat.
Vitally, to ensure success and meet the changing needs, Dr. Savage's practice requested continuous consultation and support along the way.
Find out how CharmHealth can help your practice grow.
