The Healthcare ‘Revenue Cycle management’ (RCM) process has for long been known as a highly complex function that involves years of experience, analysis, learning, and even trial and error. Before employees work themselves up to the level of a Team Lead/Middle management, they are expected to have maneuvered their way through several different software systems (commonly known as PMS and HIS) and worked on clients that are from contrasting specialties (ex: General Physicians vs. Surgery Centers).
At the end of this gruesome journey, when their career finally starts looking more promising, asking an employee to put in everything they have learned into a ‘software requirement specification document’ so that it can be automated, can be heart-wrenching. It can (rather certainly) cause job security-related concerns that can be detrimental to the culture and future of any company.
But it does not have to be that way. Jobs do not need to go away because of technology, jobs need to only ‘evolve’. Convincing your core technical and leadership team of this message is easier said than done. It has to resonate through years of building trust, communication, and reward systems. You need to get your team on board. In order for this to happen, the traditional view of ‘RCM’ work needs to change. It (the industry) has already begun changing, the remaining change is left in your core team embracing it.
IT jargon such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation), ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not common language/knowledge within a RCM services team. The more unaware your team is, the more fear and confusion it is going to cause, ultimately delaying the implementation. The focus of your communication has to be centered around the betterment of your services team’s jobs, improved competitiveness of the company, and the long-term assurance of jobs via business continuity.
In a recent newspaper, there was an outline that read “AI has created 3 times more jobs than what it had actually replaced”. This is a beautiful case study to show your team.
Companies that have been successful with
the internal messaging have got their core RCM services team on board. The
combination of RCM domain knowledge with new technology is a powerful and
thriving combination. In the years to come, one will not be able to survive
without the other.
