Health systems have been through a lot this year, and the pressure is mounting for every department and team to optimize work and minimize revenue loss. This is true too for physician relations teams, which are looking to achieve revenue goals by reducing referral leakage and keeping more patients in network..
Before forging ahead with yesterday’s strategies, let’s look at what’s changed over the past two years.
- Many physician relations teams and resources (read: budgets) have been trimmed or cut entirely to as health systems navigated the pandemic. Some are rebuilding, but staff levels aren’t what they used to be
- Traditional methods of outreach, like office visits, were limited and haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic frequency levels yet
- Historical referral partners have been disrupted. For example, capacity limitations have forced some providers that were loyal before COVID-19 to split referrals in order to meet patient needs and expectations
Overcoming these challenges and delivering on increased expectations to perform means physician liaisons must work smarter. The secret to doing that well is with a physician relationship management (PRM) solution.
What’s so great about a PRM (physician relationship management) solution?
A PRM gives an unbiased, data-based view into what’s actually happening in a health system’s network, not just what internal or anecdotal feedback suggest. With claims data and business intelligence tools to analyze it, a PRM solution will uncover actionable insights like who’s splitting referrals to competitors, and at what volumes. They will also be able to identify opportunities for growth, such as where network coverage might be lacking. And finally, reporting tools will help evaluate and illustrate impact of outreach, answering questions, like “Are relationships (and referrals) improving from targeted providers?” and “How are our strategies contributing to organizational revenue goals?”