The Vision
In the last year, Hollis Cobb has honed in on some of the problems our clients face, setting a goal to create new solutions that will help clients develop revenue cycle workflows that are more efficient and effective. Having grown service offerings to cover almost every area of the revenue cycle, Hollis Cobb leadership delved into the world of software development to find new ways to serve the provider community.
Find out more: Hollis Cobb Partners with BDO Digital
After extensive research, the team identified the charity application process and pre-authorization as two areas in which healthcare providers were losing revenue and needed automation. Looking for ways to streamline these two bottlenecks in the revenue cycle, Hollis Cobb engaged BDO Digital to assist in creating software that would help providers use technology to more efficiently process charity applications and pre-authorizations.
Providers face constant changes in insurance company procedures and regulations that affect the pre-authorization process, and they deal with cumbersome paperwork necessary to process charity applications. Both processes consume time and staff, and tend to never get caught up. Hollis Cobb saw an opportunity to develop software applications to automate these two processes, allowing providers to redeploy valuable resources to other areas of the revenue cycle, and resulting in more timely resolutions that improve the overall patient experience.
The Solutions
With the help of BDO Digital, Hollis Cobb created passage, an automated pre-authorization tool and fae, the Financial Assistance Expert. Both software applications integrate into the provider’s EMR (electronic medical record) platform and provide a seamless experience for the patient.
fae streamlines the application process for patients who need financial assistance for their medical procedures. Patients can use either a web-based portal or an IVR (integrated voice recognition) automated option to request financial assistance. With the innovative automation in place for completing financial assistance applications, providers can devote fewer resources to this area and focus more on other areas of the revenue cycle that impact their bottom line.
“By implementing fae, our clients should realize 90-95% expense reduction in the administrative cost around the financial aid application process,” said Greg Hocutt, Hollis Cobb President and CEO.
passage consists of a web portal that allows for secure management of patient data and streamlines the pre-authorization process. The tool delivers procedure evaluation, authorization initiation, systematic status updates and financial clearance. It minimizes manual tasks, increases throughput, reduces expenses and limits denials. The results are a positive impact on provider efficiency and profitability as well as a better experience for patients who find a faster path to their medical procedures.
“One of the main defining things of passage, from a KPI standpoint, is based on the research we’ve done with BDO,” said Josh Best, VP of Client Services for Hollis Cobb, adding that “we’re looking at a 30% reduction in the workload at day 1, moving to 60% once matured.”
The Future
The creation of fae and passage has transformed Hollis Cobb’s business and accelerated the company’s digital capabilities. In the midst of an ever-changing healthcare environment, Hollis Cobb has reimagined how we do business functioning more strategically, with greater agility and always with our primary focus being on delivering excellent outcomes for our clients.
Now released, fae and passage directly connect into Epic, the nation’s largest EMR platform, which currently holds the medical records for 54% of U.S. patients. Epic providers can find Hollis Cobb’s new solutions in Epic’s application catalog, known as the App Orchard. fae and passage can also work within other EMR platforms besides Epic, and the digital solutions will continue to be enhanced to improve capabilities and better serve the needs of providers.
