California Sutter Health

From Bottom to Top: How One Provider Retooled Its Collections

Introduction

Sutter Health is developed by the community based health-care providers and has been a non-profit network of Northern California. This network was initiated as an interface with the objective of increasing revenues collection of the services from the self-pay patients. Furthermore, this system offers a wide series of health-care services together with the acute, sub acute, long term, home-health along with out-patient care. It also consists of the physical delivery systems. Through integrated health-care system, individuals are offered these services which contribute the system's ability to deliver an entire series of health-care products and service to the people of communities it focus on.

With the help of this network, the limitation was identified in the traditional payment processing system which kept the effective collection of revenue at distance. The associations of these limitations were due to the limited approach to the precise information by the accountants, in-effective performance measures and discontinue service provision centers.

The creation of the system by the Sutter health program which constituted the solutions that geared for trounce these restrictions. The aim of this paper is to focus on the Sutter Health key problems and issues, provides background information, relevant facts, the solution employed, and the results achieved.

Discussion

Approach by California Sutter Health

Sutter Health is one of the largest health-care service providers in the Northern California's. It is non-profit community base health-care system at Sacramento. There were many problems faced by Sutter Health but there were certain major problems due to which Souza & McCarty wrote an article which stated research data suggesting how this health-care system consider to be on the category of the largest health-care provider in Northern California contrive in the implementation of the entire new strategy on how to increase revenue collection.

The new approach was based on the collection of the new patients as collection was not properly collected from them. The bases was on how and when to collect the payment from these patients. The program which assists the Sutter Health was accounts receivable (AR) department in creating solutions to the problems which allowed them realize that though the program is productive, it is necessary to ensure that the program remains open for healthier enhancement. The reduction in the account receivable from 65 to 59 in nine hospitals was achieved in first three months of the project. This amount was equal to the $ 13 million for each day (Souz M., & Brent M., 2007).

Key problems faced by Sutter Health

The problems that were identified by Sutter Health while analyzing the management revenue cycle before implementation of the new program.

Patient Financial Services - PFS staff was unable to access real time information on the main financial & operational indicators which comprises of account receivable day and cash collection period. This results frequently for the managers and staff to wait till the month end in order set bench-marks. These bench-marks were track progress or relating to the crucial business ...