Claim Volumes, Staffing Issues Plague Rev Cycle During COVID-19

Erratic and unpredictable claim volumes is the top issue for rev cycle and finance leaders, finds a new survey.

Erratic and unpredictable claim volumes and a host of staffing issues are just a few of the top COVID-19 related problems that have plagued revenue cycles in recent months, finds a new survey.

Alpha Health commissioned the survey, which was conducted through the Healthcare Financial Management Association's Pulse Survey program among 587 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders at hospitals and health systems.

The most common issue—cited by 50.5% of respondents—is that work and claim volumes have been erratic and unpredictable.

The next most common issue was an increase in workloads due to confusion over codes and requirements for COVID-19 related claims; 37% of respondents agreed that's been an issue.

Despite the increased workloads in some areas, overstaffing has also been an issue, with 35.8% of respondents saying that they were overstaffed because of a decrease in claim volumes.

Other issues that came up in the survey were decreases in productivity because of the move to remote work (34.7%) and because of staff reductions (32%).

Few respondents cited problems with understaffing because of an increase in claim volumes (4.2%) or experienced decreased productivity because staffers were sick with COVID-19 (2.9%)