This content is from AVIA’s bi-weekly email newsletter, the AVIA Bulletin, where we share industry news and explore healthcare trends. Want the Bulletin directly in your inbox? Complete the form at the bottom of this page to subscribe.

Bringing home the bacon…

Health system margins have always been thin. But when the pandemic arrived, the CARES Act relief kept operating margins close to what they were pre-pandemic. Healths systems are at risk as federal subsidies are depleted and operating margins remain in the red. All in all, inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain issues continue to plague health systems’ bottom line.

To combat these risks, health systems need to find new ways to drive down costs and accelerate revenue. They can accomplish both goals by digitizing the patient financial journey. Our research shows that when health systems incorporate digital tools into their revenue cycle, they can save big—to the tune of more than 1% of Net Patient Revenue. The key is to choose the right solutions that will help them achieve their goals. Let’s get started.

Industry insights

• Building a financial safety net: 4 key digital solutions to optimize the patient financial journey [AVIA]
• AVIA names winners of inaugural digital transformation healthcare awards [AVIA]
• The power of digital health care ecosystems [Deloitte]
• Can tech help patients only have to tell their story once? [Healthcare IT News]
• How next-generation automation technology can improve healthcare revenue management [MedCity News]

Blog of the week

The Council for Quality Healthcare Index estimates that health systems spend $391 billion on administrative tasks. Of that figure, $42 billion is spent on managing financial transactions. But if the health industry transitions to electronic transactions across the patient financial journey, they can save 42% of that: $16.3 billion. Not only that, but health systems that integrate digital tools into their revenue cycle can also improve the patient experience and reduce the administrative burden on their staff.

Our article Building a Financial Safety Net: 4 Key Digital Solutions to Optimize the Patient Financial Journey discusses four digital capabilities that will help health systems transform patients’ financial journey while making a financial impact: prior authorization, financial clearance, patient bill pay, and revenue cycle analytics.

What we’re into this week

Read: Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career, which explores the memes, the myths, and the movies of Nicolas Cage

Listen: to How Did This Get Made?, a podcast where an entertaining trio of hosts wonder why and how production ever got off the ground for certain movies (including Face/Off, Con Air, and Deadfall)

Watch: The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes a documentary that explores the mystery surrounding the death of movie icon Marilyn Monroe through previously unheard interviews with her inner circle