Outsourcing ROI

7 (pretty amazing) things that happen when you outsource your record requests

We find that many orthopedic practices handle their own medical record requests because it feels easier than outsourcing. But what if we told you that outsourcing this function would actually make your life easier? And better?

Outsourcing your release of information (ROI) is fast, painless and has immediate benefits to your practice. Plus, your friends are doing it too - HealthMark has been peer reviewed by AAOE, with 99% of orthopedic practices surveyed finding it easy to use, and 93% would recommend it to fellow orthopedic practices. HealthMark is the only release of information vendor with the AAOE Peer Review designation.

Here are 7 things that happen when you outsource your record request process to HealthMark:

1. Your patient satisfaction goes up.

Record requests are a critical contributor to patient satisfaction. Often times patients who need records are going through a challenging time: an injury, an upcoming surgery, a work-related injury. Emotions are already heightened, and challenges receiving records can quickly cause your patient satisfaction scores to plummet. HealthMark has an average record turnaround time of 8 business hours for the majority of requests, and all requests are managed by a kind, compassionate and highly responsive team. Plus we never charge patients for access to their records.

2. You never have to worry about sick days or vacations.

One of the biggest benefits to outsourcing record requests is the improvement in reliability. When you outsource record requests, you immediately go from a team of one or two employees to a team of hundreds of people dedicated to processing records. You no longer have to worry about sick days or vacation days – there’s always someone available and actively working on your requests.

3. Your staff can spend time in ways that have a greater impact.

Managing record requests is an administrative burden – it involves a lot of manual, repetitive, clerical work. When you outsource this function, it frees up your team members to focus on more important patient-related and revenue-generating activities. Wouldn’t you rather have your staff spend time interacting with patients instead of in a back-room processing record requests?

4. You save money.

We talk to so many orthopedic practices who believe they are making money on record requests, but an audit of their costs vs. revenue quickly proves otherwise. Yes, you may be collecting fees for some of your record requests, but the associated costs, materials and resources required to collect those fees often far outweigh any revenue, leaving your practice operating at a deficit when it comes to managing record requests.

5. Your phone calls regarding record requests drop to zero.

Setting aside the time it takes for the actual processing of medical record requests, there are also questions from patients that must be addressed. HealthMark becomes part of your phone tree, answering patient questions on your behalf. Just think of the time you’ll save on phone calls alone!

6. Your HIPAA compliance risk drops significantly.

Unauthorized disclosures of patient data is a serious risk. When you handle record requests internally, that risk goes up as your process is likely tied to a single person or a handful of people (it’s often how organizations end up on the OCR’s notorious “Wall of Shame”). HealthMark leverages a combination of human review and machine learning to perform four quality control checks on every single request, significantly reducing your risk of unauthorized disclosures.

7. You can start experiencing benefits in days, not months (or years!).

The words implementation and EMR integration often inspire fear in the hearts of HIM and practice managers. You’re thinking months of work, hours upon hours of testing and endless frustration. But that’s not the case with record requests! A standard implementation only takes about 90 minutes of your time, with the entire process complete in an average of just 10 days. No big scary implementations here!

Ready to learn more, or get a customized ROI analysis for your practice? Reach out to us here.

Article provided by HealthMark Group.