Revenue Cycle Management Leaders Need Registrars, Billing Specialists

Frontline healthcare workers are not the only ones facing staffing shortages. Registrars, billing specialists, and patient follow-up staff were the most in-demand revenue cycle management positions for healthcare finance leaders, according to a survey from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned by AKASA.

The survey confirmed that hospitals and health systems are also struggling to maintain a complete, stable staff for revenue cycle management operations.

“We’re seeing staffing gaps at every stage of the revenue cycle process,” Amy Raymond, vice president of revenue cycle operations at AKASA, said in the press release. “Revenue cycle departments are essential to the success of a healthcare organization. But this function of healthcare isn’t care-related and thus, often considered not revenue-generating. The result? Reactive, rather than proactive, hiring.”

“When there’s a demand, revenue cycle specialists are hired. When there’s less demand, they’re let go. This reactionary hiring cycle results in permanent workers often facing too much work, and patients having a less-than-stellar financial experience.”

The survey gathered responses from more than 400 healthcare finance leaders between December 1, 2021, and December 21, 2021, to understand which revenue cycle roles have the most significant demand to fill vacancies.

Registrars topped the list, with nearly 60 percent of finance leaders saying they needed to attract talent for that position. Almost 55 percent of leaders said billing specialists were in demand, while 42 percent needed patient follow-up staff members.

Around 35 percent of respondents reported that they needed to fill vacancies for front staff, central scheduling, denial specialists, and authorization staff. Claims specialists and collections followed with 35.2 percent and 34.4 percent of finance leaders reporting vacancies for the positions.

Financial counselors (26.9 percent), cash posters (25.2 percent), underpayments (17.8 percent), patient advocates (11.7 percent), and pre-filing positions (7.7 percent) also made the list.

The survey results revealed that healthcare leaders find recruiting revenue cycle management staff challenging. Organizations are also struggling to retain current staff due to the time and resources needed to train revenue cycle specialists, the press release noted. While companies may have experienced staff already, the increased workload may make it impossible for individuals to handle everything themselves.

For this reason, hospitals and health systems are turning to automation, AKASA said.

“When you weave in an effective automation tool, you’re adding a team member, or an entire team of members, that integrates with your staff and helps things run smoother,” Raymond stated. “The technology essentially provides you with virtual full-time employees. Some of the work your team is doing now can be reassigned to the automation, freeing up the team to handle more value-generating tasks that require true human judgment.”

According to revenue cycle leaders, leveraging automation is key to expanding revenue cycle management.

The number of health systems using revenue cycle automation increased by 12 percent in 2021, rising from 66 to 78 percent, a separate survey commissioned by AKASA found.

New York-based healthcare provider Northwell Health recently partnered with an artificial intelligence company to automate document processing, chart reviews, denials management, and other revenue cycle processes through natural language processing.

Healthcare stakeholders have also collaborated with artificial intelligence providers to automate processes like prior authorization.