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Case Study
Collaboration and Support Provide a Smooth Transition to New Billing and Claims Management System
“Change Healthcare played a pivotal role [in the system change] by participating in workflow and build discussions as an extension of our team.”
- Mark LaFontaine,
Director of Revenue Integrity Singing River Health System
Customer
Singing River Health System
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Challenge
Transition to a new, integrated billing and claims management system and align existing processes and culture, while winding down previous system.
Products
Revenue Cycle Management Services, including accounts receivable follow-up, payment posting, claim edit review, insurance credit balance services, and system transition support
Results
- Full functionality on day one of the new system
- Secure alignment with existing culture and processes
- Increased efficiency immediately following transition
- High overall satisfaction
The Customer:
Singing River Health System includes two hospitals: Singing River and Ocean Springs, as well as four primary clinics and six specialty clinics. The health system’s 300 physicians/providers and 2,000 staff members care for more than 100,000 people each year in the Pascagoula, Mississippi area.
The Challenge: Achieve a Smooth Transition to a New, Integrated Billing and Claims Management System
Transitioning to a new, integrated system for billing and claims management has the potential for innumerable things to go wrong. First, there are multiple facets to the conversion: accounts from the previous system must be resolved; claim edits have to be reviewed, addressed, and routed to the right area; and staff members need to learn new ways of posting payments.
Secondly, each organization has its own unique, complex challenges. For Singing River Health System, this included offering a wide range of medical specialties, from primary care to cardiac and mental health, and serving a population that includes a high percentage of individuals covered by Medicaid or Veterans Administration benefits, or who are selfpay customers.
The Solution: a Revenue Cycle Management Team Focused on Collaboration as well as Covering all the Bases
Change Healthcare had been supporting Singing River with revenue cycle management services since 2007, and health system leaders decided the relationship would continue through the transition. Additionally, Change Healthcare would use its collaborative, system-agnostic approach to enable a methodical phased rollout of the new system. This included:
- Process streamlining and advanced training
- On-site tech support and quality assurance
- Aligning the new system with the existing workflow and culture
- Overall customer management support for all locations
Originally, Singing River had planned to handle payment posting and collection internally. However, as the pressures of the transition intensified, the health system chose to rely on Change Healthcare for its knowledge, experience, and expertise in these functions.
Originally, Singing River had planned to handle payment posting and collection internally. However, as the pressures of the transition intensified, the health system chose to rely on Change Healthcare for its knowledge, experience, and expertise in these functions.
The Results: Streamlined Processes, Day-One Functionality, and Smooth Operations
Singing River’s billing system transition was completed on time, with full functionality the day the new system launched. The Change Healthcare team’s collaboration with both leaders and team members, as well as with other vendors, helped to streamline processes and enable systems to run more smoothly – as demonstrated by recent metrics*:
- 36.4 average days in AR
- 6.1 percent of AR over 120 days
- a net collection rate of 98.6 percent
Because of its long-standing relationship with the health system, Change Healthcare staff didn’t have a learning curve with regard to the organization’s work style, payer relationships, or nuances of its revenue cycle. As a result, the team was able to achieve rapid alignment between the new system and the organization’s processes and culture.
Net promoter scores of +9 and +10 for satisfaction and confidence from Singing River Health System about Change Healthcare further reflect the success of the transition to the new system, as well as Singing River Health System’s continued relationship with Change Healthcare.
*Results are specific to this customer and its circumstances. They are not guarantees.
