Translational barriers and their effect upon cardiovascular revenues and reimbursement

During the past 2 decades in health care environments, particularly hospitals, attempts to centralize operational processes have inadvertently bred barriers to interdepartmental communication, resulting in the creation of informational silos and, ultimately, decreases in revenues reported and reimbursement obtained. Overall, operational centralization has reaped process improvement. However, these efficiencies have come at the cost of measurable accuracies that directly affect the bottom line. Cardiovascular managers and administrators should not assume that all the benefits from reviewing claims and information processes within symbiotic departments have already been obtained. Key long-standing services provided to the managers and administrators by departments such as Hospital or Health Information Management/Systems (HIM/HIS), the Business Office (Patient Financial/Account Services), and Information Systems should be periodically reviewed, fine tuned, and overhauled if necessary. The consequence of such reviews and maintenance will be tangible gains in operational efficiency as well as increased financial productivity.