Healthcare Revenue Falling Short of 2022 Goals for Many Providers

Most provider organizations are behind their 2022 healthcare revenue goals, according to a recent survey of health system and physician group finance leaders.

Revenue cycle management technology vendor R1 RCM commission Censuswide, a London-based survey consulting firm, to poll chief financial officers (CFOs) and revenue cycle vice presidents (VPs) from large health systems and physician groups in the US. The survey yielded responses from 205 CFOs and VPs of revenue cycle in early June. Survey results were emailed to RevCycleIntelligence.

Nearly half (46 percent) of the respondents said their organizations are behind their 2022 healthcare revenue goals so far this year. Meanwhile, 40 percent of respondents reported being on target to meet their goals and just 8 percent reported being on track to exceed their goals. The last 5 percent of respondents were unsure.

Hospitals and health systems have seen some improvement in terms of their revenue and patient volumes in 2022. However, provider organizations across the care continuum are still plagued by rising expenses and labor shortages, leading to lackluster financial performance despite the promise of better days after record losses during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare CFOs and revenue cycle VPs agreed that increasing costs are a concern. When asked what their top concern is when it comes to the financial health of their organizations, 25 percent cited increasing costs, making it the top concern.

Over a fifth (22 percent) of respondents also said the risk of recession was a major concern for their organization’s financial health, while 21 percent cited shrinking margins. The financial leaders polled were also concerned with claims reimbursement from both public and private payers (17 percent) and unidentified revenue leakage (13 percent).

Labor shortages are also impacting care quality in addition to healthcare revenue performance, the survey indicated. A third of financial leaders said their organizations are currently experiencing clinical deficiencies due to labor shortages.

A third of respondents also said they are facing data and cybersecurity threats. Other top responses include operational deficiencies because of labor shortages (30 percent), issues with price transparency compliance (29 percent), lowered patient volumes due to COVID-19 surges (28 percent), and value-based payment navigation (28 percent).

Labor shortages are also affecting revenue cycle management, according to the survey. Over a fifth (21 percent) of respondents said attracting and retaining revenue cycle management talent was a current challenge to their revenue cycles for which they were seeking a solution. Nearly half (48 percent) also said they were facing a severe shortage within their revenue cycle management or billing department. Another third (34 percent) said the shortage was moderate.

To mitigate the effects of the labor shortage, most CFOs and revenue cycle VPs are turning to automation and technology, especially solutions that help patients self-serve. Half of the finance leaders are expanding employee benefits or compensation.