Why We Do This Work
Over the past several months, I’ve written about many of the headwinds facing healthcare. They include financial pressures, workforce shortages, rural access and the rapid emergence of AI.
None of those challenges have gone away. If anything, they’re becoming more complex.
Which raises a simple question: Why do we choose to work in healthcare?
But, as I reflect on the work our teams have done so far this year, three client stories remind me exactly why our work matters:
At a critical access hospital, our revenue cycle and central business office team redesigned the revenue cycle from end-to-end, reducing unbilled/Discharged Not Final Billed (DNFB) accounts from $1.3 million to less than $90,000; improving the initial clean-claim rate from 25% to 76% over four months; and helping second-quarter cash receipts rise nearly $1.2 million year-over-year.
At a community hospital, we implemented a comprehensive denial-management program that reduced cardiology testing denials by 90%, while improving coding, pre-authorization, physician documentation and a payment process that finally works the way it should for the organization.
And at a not-for-profit academic health system, we were asked to provide a comprehensive financial and operational turnaround. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with their team across finance, revenue cycle, managed care, physician enterprise, 340B, labor and supply chain, we helped drive a $96 million improvement in operations over the prior year and a $56 million improvement in cash collections over system goals during the first six months of the engagement.
You can read more about these success stories here.
These numbers matter. They should. Our clients expect measurable results, and so do we.
But the numbers alone aren’t the reason we come to work every morning. A stronger balance sheet means a hospital can invest in people. Better cash flow helps preserve services. Fewer denials mean more resources can be directed toward patient care, instead of administrative waste. Ultimately, stronger hospitals mean stronger care and better health for the communities that depend on them.
The numbers make all that possible. And that’s what makes this work so rewarding.
Three organizations. Three very different missions. Three different definitions of success. Yet every one of them faced many of the same challenges facing hospitals across America, including labor shortages, reimbursement pressure, rising costs and growing operational complexity.
Moving forward, healthcare will continue to change. AI will reshape how we work. New challenges will emerge.
But one thing won’t change. Healthcare is still about people. Communities still depend on strong hospitals. And there is always meaningful work to do.
That’s why we’re in this. Every day brings different stories and new situations, but with one shared purpose: helping healthcare organizations become stronger, so they can continue fulfilling the calling that brought all of us into healthcare in the first place.