Empowered Patient Podcast

Lauralea Tanner, Chief Growth Officer at Acclara, describes the revenue cycle management critical decision points for hospitals, health systems, payers, and patients.  In the hospital setting, there are lab tests, radiology, anesthesiology, surgeons, and other clinicians, all providing services that require proper coding and billing for collection. With many opportunities for errors and patient confusion, call center technology to handle questions, AI to address mundane coding tasks, and other technologies allow the professionals to take complex patient questions. Lauralea explains, "So revenue cycle management really starts when the hospital or health system engages with the patient. So it starts with that patient intake process, or what we call patient registration or scheduling process, and then when they present at the hospital or the doctor's office for services." "At that point, then it falls into clinical care. The patient is seen, and they're treated. After the patient leaves, that is really where th