Healthcare Accounting software and finance are becoming paramount priorities as the competitive landscape evolves. Carefully managing costs and driving revenue empowers organisations to preserve their advantage while tapping into the ever-expanding healthcare economy.
The problem is that in healthcare accounting organisations as complex as long-term care and skilled nursing facilities, physician practices, or clinics, accounting and finance is a major undertaking. And when these organisations are suffering with persistent pain points, simply managing the basics of accounting is an all-consuming process. The threat of errors and omission is high, and the strategic potential of financial data is largely lost.
Solving this problem begins with recognising the issues in play:
Lack of visibility
The nature of the healthcare industry means that organisations often have multiple locations across state lines. Each location may share core financials with one other, but the details of the accounting departments are largely siloed off from each other. This inevitably leads to confusion, delay, and oversight.
Slow decision making
As accounting and finance departments begin to integrate more data, the processes historically used to manage that data become time-consuming and cumbersome. Decision makers have to wait for key financials, forcing the organisation to slow down as the industry is speeding up.
Poor financial understanding
Financial data is useful in every department, but it’s often presented in a way that makes it inaccessible to non-financial professionals. Even when the healthcare accounting department is able to generate deep insights, it’s difficult to share them with other stakeholders.
Incomplete reporting
Generating reports based on growing amounts of accounting data requires tons of input while delivering uncertain returns. And when organisations don’t fully understand their past performance it’s much harder to effectively plan for the future.
Too much manual input
Relying on manual inputs is a time- and labour-intensive process that is ripe for mistakes. Worse, as inputs increase, the only solution is to push back deadlines or hire more healthcare accountants.
Ineffective analysis
When analysis is based on outdated, incomplete, or erroneous data it’s unhelpful at best and self-destructive at worst. Unfortunately, as it becomes harder for healthcare accounting departments to collect, integrate, and examine data, analysis will only become less reliable.
In this instance a complex problem has a fairly simple solution. Healthcare accounting departments are being asked to dive deeper into growing pools of data in order to find the innovative ideas that set the course for the future. That is an overwhelming responsibility, which is why smart tools like automation, machine learning, and advanced analytics are essential.
When the hardest parts of financial data management are automatic, healthcare accounting departments are free to focus on strategy, outreach, and innovation. And when technology does more of the heavy lifting, the quality of communication, collaboration, and planning improve instantly.
Don’t let accounting pain points limit the potential of your accounting department and the healthcare organisation you serve. Find out more about how Sage Intacct for Healthcare Organisations can help grow and keep financial processes running smoothly for today and tomorrow.
Looking forward – How can Healthcare organisations adapt their accounting in 2021?
One thing has been consistent during 2020 – change…and healthcare has had its fair share. What does that mean for healthcare in 2021? More change! Beyond that, here are my thoughts on what’s to come and how healthcare organisations will adapt in the coming year.
Cost control will be paramount in 2021, and Activity-Based Cost Accounting will be business critical in a post-COVID world for Healthcare organisations.
Nothing will be more important to healthcare organisations than controlling costs, and businesses will turn to Activity-Based Cost Accounting in order to survive in a post pandemic world. Traditional methods divide costs into product and period costs, resulting in arbitrary allocations. Activity-Based Cost Accounting places a greater emphasis and focuses on true costs that allow for a greater understanding of pricing strategies. This is especially important in value-based contracts. Looking ahead, healthcare organisations that adopt this method will have a better awareness of all costs associated with their services. Sage Intacct’s cloud architecture gives nonprofit health organisations a world-class accounting and finance foundation. Deploy immediately – without the upfront expenses and IT headaches. With simple pay-as-you-go pricing, you get complete security, guaranteed performance, quarterly updates, and easy integration with other systems through our open architecture.
Are you interested in Sage Intacct for your healthcare organisation and want to learn more? Why not take a coffee break demo today or contact us by email at info@x3consulting.com to speak to one of our consultants.