KLAS: Epic Among Top Healthcare RCM, Finance Solutions in 2018
Best in KLAS 2018 identified the top healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) and finance solutions for patient accounting, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning, and coding and documentation.
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By - Epic and MEDITECH were just a few of the vendors that earned top marks in the 2018 Best in KLAS Software and Services report for healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) and finance solutions.
Unlike other healthcare markets, like the EHR space, a single or handful of vendors did not sweep the healthcare RCM and finance market segments. Provider organizations ranked a wide range of health IT companies as their favorites for patient accounting and management, business intelligence and analytics, enterprise resource planning, and coding and documentation.
Although industry heavy-hitters, like Epic and MEDITECH, did make their mark on the healthcare RCM and finance space.
Provider organizations are turning to healthcare RCM and finance solutions to support the organization’s cost-cutting and quality improvement initiatives, especially as the industry transitions to value-based reimbursement.
Relying on high-quality vendors, particularly those that serve as partners and not just business associates, is key to improving business operations and healthcare revenue cycle management.
READ MORE: Top Revenue Cycle Management Vendors and How to Select One
Here are the solutions that dominated the 2018 Best in KLAS lists for key healthcare RCM and finance market segments.
Patient accounting, management, and access
Epic and MEDITECH topped the 2018 Best in KLAS list of healthcare RCM and finance solutions relating to patient accounting and management services.
Large hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) preferred Epic’s Resolute Hospital Billing solution for patient accounting and management for the third consecutive year. The Wisconsin-based vendor known for its EHR system earned 89.4 points overall, outperforming the second-place vendor, MEDITECH, by about 16 points.
Epic scored higher than the market segment average in all five performance categories, including sales and contracting, implementation and training, functionality and upgrades, service and support, and general satisfaction.
Among large hospitals and IDNs, MEDITECH took second place for its C/S and 6.x Patient Accounting, followed by Cerner’s Patient Accounting/CommunityWorks Financials, and Allscripts’ Paragon Financials (McKesson).
READ MORE: Preparing the Healthcare Revenue Cycle for Value-Based Care
While MEDITECH was second among large hospitals and health systems, the health IT company from Massachusetts earned first place among community hospitals in 2018.
MEDITECH’s C/S and 6.x Patient Accounting solution outperformed CPSI’s Centriq Financials, Cerner’s Patient Accounting/CommunityWorks Financials, AllScripts’ Paragon Financials (McKesson), and MEDHOST’s Enterprise Financials.
In terms of patient access services and software, Recondo took the lead in 2018, with an overall score of 87.2 points. The Colorado-based company outperformed the market segment average for sales and contracting and general satisfaction.
The company also scored around the market segment average or slightly higher on implementation and training, functionality and upgrades, and service and support.
In terms of patient access solutions, DCS Global’s Patient Access ranked second, with a score of 85.9 points, followed by Experian Health’s eCare NEXT with 83.9 points and Change Healthcare’s Clearance Patient Access Suite (Relay Health) with 83.2 points.
READ MORE: Top 10 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Vendors By Hospital Use
Experian Health’s patient access solution fell to third in 2018 after the vendor outranked both Recondo’s and DSC Global’s patient access solutions in 2016 and 2017.
KLAS also reported the top healthcare RCM and financial solutions for other patient accounting solutions. The company named the following Best in KLAS in 2018:
• nThrive dominated the charge capture and contract management solution categories as the only vendor scored
• Craneware earned top marks for its chargemaster management solution, followed by VitalWare and nThrive
• Quadax scored the highest overall points (92 points) in terms of claims management solutions, closely followed by Change Healthcare (87.8 points), SSI Group (86.7 points), and Experian Health (86.7 points)
Healthcare business intelligence and analytics solutions
KLAS named Health Catalyst’s Analytics Platform as the top healthcare business intelligence and analytics solution in 2018. The data analytics company from Utah outperformed the market on all five performance categories, particularly going above the average service and support score.
Health Catalyst beat last year’s top business intelligence solution, Dimensional Insight’s Diver Platform. The solution from Dimensional Insight earned second place this year, with a score just 0.1 points below that of Health Catalyst’s platform.
Other high-ranking healthcare business intelligence and analytics solutions in 2018 included Tableau, Change Healthcare’s Analytics Explorer (McKesson), Qlik’s Platform, Microsoft’s BI Solutions, SAP’s BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, and IBM’s Cognos Enterprise.
For business decision support solutions, Strata Decision Technology’s StrataJazz Decision Support system earned top marks, followed by EPSI’s Decision Support and Vizient’s Decision Support Costing and Contracting.
Nuance’s Clintegrity Quality Solutions took the lead for quality management solutions in 2018, closely followed by Medisolv’s ENCOR, Verge Health’s Quality Management Suite, and Vizient’s suite.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions
Users ranked Workday’s HCM, Financial Management and Supply Chain solution as the top enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in 2018.
The solution earned an overall score of 90 points, beating Premier’s Premier Connect ERP Solution by 2 points, Allscripts’ ERP Solutions by 13.4 points, Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise by 14.8 points, and Infor’s Healthcare Solutions Suite by 17.5 points.
2018 marks the first year that Workday outperformed top ERP vendors from the past two years. Premier and Allscripts earned top marks for their ERP solutions in 2016 and 2017.
Clinical document improvement and other coding solutions
Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and accurate coding are key to maximizing revenue. According to the recent KLAS report, provider organizations are turning to ChartWise’s CDI solution, Nuance’s CDI Solution, Optum’s Optum360 CDI 3D, and 3M’s 360 Encompass CDI/CDIS platform.
The solutions topped the list of best CDI software products in 2018, with ChartWise earning the top score of 91.6 points.
For computer-assisted coding (CAC) solutions, Dolbey’s Fusion CAC outperformed its competitors with a score of 90.3 points. The vendor outranked the CAC solutions from 3M and Optum in 2018.
In terms of medical record coding, provider organizations preferred Nuance’s Clintegrity Coding system. But 3M’s Codefinder was close behind, ranking second despite scoring just 0.5 points less.
