Hospital Purchased Services Spend, Category 3: Finance/HR/HIM

This article was written by Lisa Miller.

At VIE Healthcare Consulting we work with six categories of hospital purchased services spend. This blog looks at Finance/HR/HIM.

To review our summary of this entire series, click here.

Purchased services is that part of your organization’s spend that is contracted, purchased from or outsourced to a third party vendor, rather than carried out by your hospital’s in-house team.

Healthcare in this country is becoming increasingly complex and costly. Purchased services can account for up to 40%-50% of your organization’s non-labor spend yet hiding in your invoices is the potential for major savings which can dramatically improve your hospital’s margins.

Purchased services encompasses every department in your health system.

At VIE Healthcare Consulting we provide a framework for our clients to categorize their purchased services spend. That framework consists of six categories.

The third category is Finance, HR & HIM.

What is Finance, HR & HIM?

Within any organization, the finance and human elements must be managed well in order to function and sustain success and profitability. Human resources (HR) and financial responsibilities must be administered appropriately to maximize an organization’s productivity and increase employee engagement and retention.

Managing health information is also crucial in any healthcare system as regulations for protecting data relating to patient health have become stricter under HIPAA.

Health Information Management (HIM) is “information management applied to healthcare. It is the practice of acquiring, analyzing and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to providing quality patient care.”

With the digitization of health records and the increased use of Electronic Health Records (EHR), this area of healthcare has grown exponentially in recent years and will continue to play a large role in health organizations moving forward.

Outsourcing Finance, HR & HIM

Certain services provided by a healthcare organization’s Finance, HR and HIM departments can be outsourced. The benefits include:

• Finance: The management of financial responsibilities like payroll and collection services are essential to an organization’s operation and profitability and can be outsourced to avoid overwhelming internal resources.

• HR: For smaller organizations especially, outsourcing these services will allow employees to focus on quality and growth.
• HIM: Many hospitals have chosen to outsource their HIM to expert vendors due to its specialized nature and the need to protect ePHI (electronic protected health information).

Finances, HR & HIM Case Study

Many vendors offer some combination of human resources, benefits and payroll services. By partnering with one such vendor, health systems can reduce risk, become more efficient, expand business and become more profitable.

By focusing on areas such as payroll, tax compliance, human resources, workers’ compensation and employee benefits, these vendors also allow healthcare organizations to focus on core activities like patient care.

One hospital that chose to outsource these services reported achieving productivity improvement of 55% in Payroll Administration, 76% in Benefits Administration and 71% in Client Services.

Collaborating with a vendor to provide Finance, HR and HIM services means your healthcare organization no longer has to try and become an expert at everything. Instead, you can commit your employment-related, administrative activities to a team of dedicated professionals so you can focus on patient care, growth and organizational objectives.

Finances, HR & HIM: What’s included?

These departments encompass the following:

• Merchant Cards.
• Collection Services.
• Background Screening.
• Eligibility Verification.
• Tax Audits.
• Payroll Services.
• Risk Management.
• Safety Management.
• Temporary Staffing.
• Employee Assistance/Counseling.
• Healthcare Benefits.
• Retirement Planning.
• Performance Management.
• Drug Screening.
• Compliance.
• Pension Administration.
• Worker’s Compensation.

To learn more about using hospital purchased services as a leading strategy for cost reduction in healthcare click here.
Invoice ROI™ from VIE Healthcare empowers your organization to analyze your purchased services trends and track these costs in real time to deliver actionable intelligence.

For a complimentary consultation, call our office today at 1-888-484-3332, Ext 500 or email us at info@viehealthcare.com.