PDS Students Learn About Revenue Cycle Management

All MHA students participate in a Professional Development Seminar aimed at building essential leadership and development skills and exposing students to key aspects of health care management.

MHA students participate in an in-class revenue cycle management exercise.

By: Lauren Waggoner (MHA ’18)

During our Professional Development Seminar last week, second-year MHA students had the opportunity to learn about revenue cycle management with Philip Roudabush, Director of Patient Financial Services at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) and Lauren Mason (MHA ’06), Revenue Cycle Associate Director at UIHC. During our time together, they outlined the importance of each step of the revenue cycle including scheduling, registration, documentation, claim submission, payment postings, and bad debt.

Students participated in an in-class exercise that highlighted the interdependence of each step of the revenue cycle. Each student represented a unique step of the revenue cycle that experienced a delay. We saw that delays can quickly build-up due to registration errors, insurance billing errors, charge entry errors, and so on – each step must be completed correctly in order for the entire process to function efficiently. An abundance of little errors can build up and force health care organizations to miss timely filings, thereby losing large amounts of revenue. It is critical that clinical and revenue cycle staff recognize the significant impact that each has on the other.

The key takeaway from this class was that speed and efficiency in which a revenue cycle system can turn claims into cash can determine whether or not a health care organization is successful. As many of my classmates and I enter our post-graduate administrative fellowships, we are fortunate to have exposure to the basics of revenue cycle management and an appreciation of the importance of understanding revenue cycle and the flow of cash within health care systems.