Experts providing innovative consulting, administrative and clinical support solutions to client partners, allowing them to concentrate on direct face-to-face patient care: RelateCare

RelateCare began as a joint venture between the Cleveland Clinic and Rigneydolphin. By combining Rigneydolphin’s excellence in contact center management and Cleveland Clinic’s expertise in healthcare delivery, RelateCare is uniquely positioned to provide the very best in patient access, telehealth, contact center and outsourcing solutions to healthcare organizations around the world. With locations in Ireland and the USA, RelateCare has the experience and the capacity to develop relationships with its clients that are long lasting and deliver innovative and unique opportunities to address current and future healthcare challenges. In 2019 RelateCare announced a deal with MML Growth Capital Partners Ireland. The deal, which saw MML as the largest single equity holder, represented a significant investment in the business alongside CEO, Conor O’Byrne and President and Founder, Dr. Frank Dolphin.

Since 2019 the investment has be used to support RelateCare’s ambitious plans, including its continued expansion into the North American market and expansion of its services in Ireland. Currently RelateCare employs over 1400 staff members across Ireland and the USA at four locations.

Revenue Cycle Outsourcing Management Service

For all healthcare providers and leaders, there is one ultimate purpose and focus of their work: to provide the very highest quality in patient care and produce the best patient outcomes. There can be a tension created between this goal and the time and energy required to deal with the challenges of maintaining a functioning revenue cycle process. Staff in the Revenue Cycle department often find themselves overwhelmed and under consistent pressure with long wait times when dealing with payers, unproductive processes for financial counseling and customer services. On top of this, they must find time to stay on top of the ever-developing regulations and changes in technology. All of which can lead to major disruptions and delays in workflows. For these reasons, many healthcare leaders are beginning to see the value and sense in revenue cycle outsourcing management. By partnering with another organization that specializes in these tasks, healthcare systems can greatly benefit. Drawing on the resources, and knowledge of experts in this can remove the pressure on healthcare leaders to manage operations.

There has been a steady rise in the number of organizations that are outsourcing revenue cycle functions. According to Black Book Market Research, this number has grown by 48 percent since 2015, and 94 percent of hospital leaders are considering or vetting outsourcing companies. In the current economic and labor market, making these changes is becoming essential to survive and thrive. There are many reasons why a healthcare organization might make the choice to partner with an outsource partner to support the management of revenue cycle work:

• They may be facing into back-logs and inefficiencies in their current in-house process leading to denials and revenue leakage.
• They wish to refocus their time and energy on providing quality care and the patient experience.
• They notice their staff are overwhelmed and under pressure resulting in no time to develop and grow.

RelateCare provide a range of revenue cycle outsourcing functions for a number of leading health systems. As a trusted outsourcing partner, we understand how the healthcare system works, from a patient access perspective to the details of all HIPAA requirements. We pride ourselves on collaboration and communication and have the expertise in the relevant systems to provide value straight away.

Healthcare organizations should consider outsourcing companies that offer:

• Access to revenue cycle technology (phone system, learning management system, robotic process automation.
• Proven ability and track record to handle heavy healthcare revenue cycle workflows and avoid denials.
• Ability to scale operations and adapt to changes seamlessly.
• Lower overall cost structure (while achieving similar or superior performance).

Over the past decade RelateCare has worked with health systems as they have reduced the cost of appointment scheduling contacts by 28%, have increased template utilization by 18% and have favorably moved the dials on denials and candidates for bill.

Smartsourcing

Key Healthcare Executive Leaders often acknowledge that change and investment is required to ensure they remain competitive within their markets with the goal to continuously guarantee a positive experience for their patients. Return on Investment will always be a key consideration when making the decision to Smartsource. The immediate focus will be on cost; will the organization save money by introducing a partner, will the partner bring additional revenue into the organization through increasing the amount of appointments scheduled, or ensuring appointments are authorized in a timely manner before the patient arrives? Contemplation should also be given to the less tangible ROI – the improved experience of the patient as they navigate their way through these early stages of their relationship with your organization – their call is answered quicker or their referral is processed and they receive a call to schedule within 48 hours; the patient has confidence that once they get to the front desk, their insurance will have been authorized in advance. When an organization is overwhelmed with calls or administrative tasks, delays or errors in these areas can send a patient elsewhere the next time they, or their family member, require healthcare assistance. Your partner will collaborate with you to ensure the realization of both the tangible and intangible ROI metrics.

RelateCare partners with a number of the leading healthcare providers in the United States to support their work in Referral Management, Scheduling and Authorizations. These partnerships often stem from challenges encountered by our partners such as rising to the change demand of contact volumes, retention of resources, antiquated telephony or IT systems or indeed a desire to benefit from business continuity and agility that a contact center partner brings.

Dr. Frank Dolphin, President and Founder

“Leveraging the latest in enabling technology and drawing on our deep understanding of healthcare systems through our expert and experienced personnel, we are able to deploy a range of service offerings to enable organizations to optimize their patient access journey, creating a more efficient and patient-centered experience.”