How Do We Know So Much About Your Practice? The Client Insight Tool!
8:34am
Account Manager Linda Cole answers a call from Client #750.
Client: I have a problem. We have more cash on the books this quarter than we expected. We don’t know where it’s coming from. Can you help me figure this out?
Linda: Of course.
Linda opens the Client Insight Tool and locates the individual dashboard for Client #750. Sure enough, with one click she sees that cash flow this quarter is substantially higher than this quarter last year. With a few more clicks, she sees why.
8:35am
Linda: I’ve got the answer. It looks like your collections have increased substantially on your patient responsible charges. The new self pay workflow we talked about is paying off! Would you like more details?
To help clients investigate and resolve questions like cash flow changes, payer mix differences, and increases or decreases in RVUs, athenahealth regularly uses the Client Insight Tool. A powerful behind-the-scenes database, the Client Insight Tool helps athenahealth staff quickly investigate and diagnose individual client problems. For example, if a client notices a problem with cash flow or payment rate, the Account Manager uses the Client Insight Tool to pinpoint the problem and provide direction for a course of action.
The Client Insight Tool also serves as a proactive monitoring system. Sometimes, an issue experienced by one practice will affect others. Staff in Client Operations regularly use the Client Insight Tool to identify issues as they arise, and alert clients before there is any problem.
“The Client Insight Tool helps us be as informative and knowledgeable as possible when it comes to our clients’ practices,” said Cole Parker, Manager of Process Innovation at athenahealth. “It puts another mechanism at our disposal to help practices become as profitable and streamlined as possible.”
athenahealth first released the Client Insight Tool in October 2006. This month, we’re adding a new feature that will allow Account Managers to compare individual practices to others in their region, specialty, and size category. “That way, if a client has a question about payment rate, DAR or other payment trends, we will soon be able to provide information about how that practice compares to others in a certain ‘client group’ and to athenahealth clients as a whole,” said Parker.
Best of all, you don’t need to do a thing to benefit from the Client Insight Tool. Your Account Manager is already using the tool to help your practice resolve issues and prevent problems already identified in other practices.
