AP Automation for Health Care: Helping Hospitals Align to the Triple Aim
The ever-increasing healthcare costs, cases of malpractice, and increased inefficiency are among the factors that led to healthcare reform. In 2010, for example, the US allocated the highest amount of money to the healthcare sector in the world. Approximately $3.2 trillion was allocated to healthcare. As healthcare reform continues, much attention has been given to the Triple Aim. The Triple Aim stresses reducing costs, improving population health, and enhancing patient experience. Also, ensuring employees are satisfied in their jobs has been proposed as a fundamental part of the Triple Aim making it Triple Aim +1.
AP automation and Reducing Healthcare Costs
AP automation can help health institutions achieve the three-fold mission. It cuts costs, and the savings can be directed to improving population health and patient experience. Processing invoices manually is expensive. Hospitals incur the costs of labor, paper, errors, time spent, and resources used. By using AP automation, a hospital reduces invoice processing by up to 50%. In addition, you get cost savings from reduced labor costs, storage costs, errors, and operational expenses. Your hospital enjoys dynamic discounting and averts late payment penalties. AP automation indeed helps healthcare organizations attain the Triple Aim of reducing costs.
AP Automation and Employees Productivity
AP automation for health care increases the productivity of AP professionals in a hospital. Although AP professionals touch the patient literally and not figuratively, they play a fundamental role in health institutions. They process invoices from different vendors ranging from drugs suppliers to delivery services. AP automation reduces the tiresome paperwork in manual invoice processing. AP professionals no longer need to spend countless hours and much effort processing invoices manually. AP automation takes over the processing and payments of invoices while AP professionals engage in more productive and profitable roles. It reduces labor costs because fewer employees are needed in the AP department. The saved monies can be diverted to improving population health.
Measuring Outcomes in AP Automation
For hospitals to achieve the Triple Aim, they need to measure performance metrics and outcomes. When measuring results, you should focus on all areas across the hospital ranging from patient satisfaction to financial consequences, and workforce outcomes. AP automation allows you to measure outcomes easily in an organization. Its effects in a hospital can be measured in terms of financial outcomes and workforce outcomes.
Regarding financial outcomes, AP automation reduces overall processing costs by 46. With iPayables AP automation, you only spend $1-3 per invoice as opposed to $16 per invoice when using manual invoice processing. Additionally, AP automation helps you to identify bad spending trends. It improves spend visibility by 26%. Spend visibility is not only about tracking your company’s spending patterns. It also provides a detailed account of how money is moving in your hospital.
Concerning employee outcomes, AP automation for health care reduces the workload of AP professionals. An excess workload is among the primary reasons for decreased job satisfaction and low retention rates among health workers. With AP automation, AP professionals are no longer overloaded with paperwork. They engage in high-value activities like oversight, monitoring, audit, and stakeholder decision support. AP automation also offers AP departments with bandwidth to measure their performance. Research conducted by Paystream Advisors reveals that companies that have implemented AP automation record a 57% increase in employee productivity. Productive employees have high job satisfaction and retention rate. When employees find meaning in their work, they deliver high-quality care to patients.
The Triple Aim purposes to reduce healthcare costs, improve patient experiences, and enhance population health. AP automation can help hospitals align to the Triple Aim by lowering costs. When hospitals reduce costs, they redirect the savings to activities geared towards improving population health and patient experiences. Importantly, AP automation helps you measure outcomes; something that the Triple Aim stresses. Align your hospital to the Triple aim using iPayables AP automation for Health Care today.