Roosevelt General Hospital
Increases Collections by 43% After MEDITECH as a Service Implementation
In the market for a new EHR, Roosevelt General Hospital’s leadership narrowed the search by identifying must-haves: a cost-efficient solution to resolve their revenue cycle issues without sacrificing independence. RGH’s selection committee chose MEDITECH Expanse through the company's MEDITECH as a Service, a cloud-based subscription model, to fulfill leadership’s priorities. MEDITECH as a Service, or MaaS, offered all the benefits of the full Expanse platform, without the upfront cost of procuring an on-premise EHR and data center.
“MEDITECH offered state-of-the-art software with an affordable price tag, which is essential for us to remain independent,” said Business Office Director Jessica Camacho, MBA, of RGH.
“MaaS has given us the flexibility to customize our software to meet the unique needs of our rural environment across all care settings.”
Maintaining independence with MaaS
RGH’s financial health depends on efficient coding and billing processes, supported by a strong revenue cycle solution. By implementing Expanse, deployed with MaaS, the rural health system improved cash flow and avoided substantial upfront capital investment, enabling the organization to remain independent.
Within three months of going live, RGH achieved normal payment returns — half the time it took with the legacy system. Additionally, the organization has maintained control over the cost management services offered to patients.
Strengthening cash flow
Before Expanse, the coding and billing department would have to pick and choose which claims were the most viable to pursue. The legacy EHR’s inefficient workflows failed to capture adequate information, causing the health system’s cash flow to suffer. However, with Expanse, every claim can be treated equally.
“I attribute our increased cash flow to our efficiencies in the coding and billing offices because we are now capturing everything in Expanse. We don’t miss money like we did with our legacy systems,” said Camacho. “We averaged $1.9 million to $2.1 million monthly in cash collections with our legacy system. After we implemented Expanse, our collections increased by 30% to 48%, despite experiencing a decrease in volumes for several departments.”
RGH’s emergency department and clinics saw the most notable improvements. Although overall revenue was down due to provider access issues related to its rural location, the billing and coding team reported collections in those specialties were the highest ever recorded after deploying Expanse Revenue Cycle. The solution’s simplified payment process helped to reduce A/R days and FTE requirements. Now that 95% of their payors are set up as ERA/EFT, the billing and coding team has increased efficiency by automating the process. They no longer manually enter paper checks into the system, saving 20+ hours per week in posting and scanning time.
Informing strategic decisions
To optimize MEDITECH’s Revenue Cycle solution, RGH leadership leverages the Financial Status Dashboard, an interactive reporting tool for viewing real-time trends. Camacho and other decision-makers can explore data related to patient volume, revenue, cash flow, accounts receivable, and staff productivity, all on one screen. The dashboard informs decisions on the financial viability of potential opportunities or the continuation of service lines, such as the organization’s recent operating room expansion and the addition of an off-site clinic to address community needs.
Empowered by its MEDITECH partnership and a stronger revenue stream, RGH is exploring opportunities to augment the organization’s technological capabilities with artificial intelligence. In addition, the leadership team is developing a swing bed program and looking into expanding surgical services.
"We are proof that despite a challenging healthcare environment, rural hospitals can improve their financial health while remaining independent,” said Chief Executive Officer Kaye Green, MBA, of RGH.
“Agility and innovation are key to improving the bottom line, so we can explore prospective development projects and continue to build on our achievements," she said. "I’m also looking forward to MEDITECH enhancements in clinical areas, including full integration of AI and plans for precision medicine. Even though we are a small, rural facility, our vision is to be a model for comprehensive rural healthcare and stay at the forefront of emerging technologies.”