You have heard the term from every technical vendor your work with – they will provide you a dashboard that will review for you top issues in your systems, compare your practice to similar sized practices and show where you rank nationally among their customers. While this is helpful data, reporting and analytics can be used to determine so much more.
Clinical Reporting
You are entering in so much information every time you see a patient. All of that data adds up across patients. Need to know how many diabetic patients you are seeing? Pull a report for A1C labs done in the last year with a diabetes diagnosis code attached. Are any of them delinquent in coming in for their regular labwork? Look at patients that have not had an appointment in over six months to see where recalls could be done.
In a recent study published in the Fall 2017 AHIMA online journal, results of a recent study done to identify seniors at risk for falls. Basic demographic characteristics, health profiles, services received, and medication records were used to determine a model for better identifying patients for screening for fall risks. This type of information can help the provider better educate their patients in particular areas as needed.
Financials Reporting
Practice managers need to keep their finger on the pulse of a practice’s revenue cycle. The best way to do this is to review and analyze weekly and monthly reports. Trended analyses can show where successes and challenges have cropped up. Drilling further into that data by financial class can help show you which payors are paying timely, or can raise a red flag if payments have reduced in a particular month.
Rejections and denials reporting is crucial. The practice manager or revenue cycle director should be aware of what the top 5 denials and top 5 rejections are at any given time. Is the denial and rejection rate acceptable (2 – 3% of all claims)? If not, what can be done to prevent future denials and remove them from your top 5? This will bring in cash faster and reduce delays in claims getting to and being adjudicated in a timely fashion.
These are just a few small samples of reports that can be used in your practice. When was the last time you looked at the reports your system has to offer?