Rev Cycle Honors: Epic Together Earns 15 Trophies
RWJBarnabas Health has earned an astonishing 15 Epic Trophies in revenue-based categories such as Hospital Billing (HB), Professional Billing (HB), Claims Denial, and Automation, placing us in the top 5% of Epic customers worldwide.
“Trophies are Epic’s way of recognizing excellence among their clients, serving as a benchmark for how well we are doing compared to our peers,” said Joe Scargle, SVP of Revenue Cycle. “RWJBH has risen to the top of the pack, earning 15 of 19 possible trophies, and placing us among the top 4% of healthcare systems on Epic.”
According to Jesse Lauchner, Epic Corporate Project Lead, Epic measures 18 standardized metrics for Hospital Billing and 17 for Professional Billing and assigns trophies to indicate how strong each client’s performance is relative to the entire community.
“Rev Cycle metrics show the overall health of finances and operations,” said Jesse. “RWJBH’s financial performance placed in the top percentiles in most categories, including a rare Diamond Trophy in the Hospital Billing category, earning a spot among the top 10 healthcare organizations in the entire country.
Even more significant than the number of trophies is the speed at which RWJBH’s Epic Together project has achieved this level of success.
“During most Epic conversions, revenue dips as sites adapt to the new Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology. Most healthcare systems take 30, 60, 90, even 180 days to recover,” said Rob Adamson, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer. “RWJBarnabas has been getting back to baseline revenue in three to five days, which is just remarkable.”
Joe credits the collaboration across Revenue Cycle areas including: Central Business Office (CBO), Hospital Information Management (HIM), Revenue Integrity and Patient Access, Central Access, the Financial and Clinical departments at each of our live sites; Medical Group leadership and practices; and regional and site financial leaders in helping to drive response time and contributing to our success story. “RWJBH sites that went live on Epic have taken significant ownership of revenue reconciliation and revenue accountability, which made a huge difference in helping us achieve our goals.”
RWJBarnabas’ meteoric rise was so significant, four members of the ARCR team, Nicole Redwood, Susan Yannuzzi, Jean Bryll, and Clair Skelley, were invited to speak at Epic’s annual User Group Meeting (UGM), a huge event drawing healthcare professional from across the world to Epic’s corporate headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin.
“Everyone asks us why we have that many trophies? How we’ve been able to stabilize so quickly?” said Nicole. “The answer is our people; the excitement they bring to the table and the desire to want to be on one system: Epic. That’s what makes the process work.”
The ARCR and IT&S teams celebrate successful presentations at UGM’s Annual Conference, pictured here atop the AC Hotel in downtown Madison, WI.
Front, L-R: Claire Skelley; Sue Yannuzi, Nicole Redwood; Barb Boelter, Jean Bryll
Back, L-R: Rob Adamson, Joe Scargle, Joe Galdi, Chrissy English