Matt Hawkins from Boston Software Systems shares how smart automation can solve the workforce challenges in healthcare.
- Can you tell our audience about yourself?
Hi, I’m Matt Hawkins, Executive VP of Global Sales and Strategy at Boston Software Systems. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, even before many of the Robotic Process Automation companies were even talking about RPA. I work with healthcare organizations and help them understand that they need to have a strategy moving forward to augment their human workforce. I love helping healthcare organizations improve these inefficiencies and “gaps” in patient care and administrative processes.
My youngest daughter was diagnosed with a very rare cancer in September of 2021. Truly the toughest year of my life. While sitting in the room seeing all the amazing folks caring for our daughter, I saw how every dollar in these hospitals is needed to deliver the best care. In so many ways, what we do with Boston WorkStation by automating tasks, saves organizations millions of dollars that can be used for that higher purpose, delivering the best care.
- Can you tell our audience about Boston Software Systems?
Boston Software Systems is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Our founders, Sara and Rich McNeil, were familiar with the challenges in healthcare, having worked both in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries. The McNeil’s mission was to “make things easier for healthcare professionals”.
RPA technology is a form of business process automation. The technology makes it easy to deploy software “bots” that can emulate any task a human can do at a computer. It is used to perform process tasks that weigh down individuals, but are perfect for machines.
Boston Software Systems is the only Robotic Process Automation (RPA) company with a singular, 35 year focus in healthcare.
Boston WorkStation was initiated to tackle the high-volume, repetitive and manual tasks healthcare workers do every day. Many of these tasks were in administrative areas like claims management, invoice processing, revenue cycle management and the multitude of interoperability challenges that came with having separate systems for legacy billing and clinical health records. Their goal was to provide a “toolkit” of sorts, for healthcare’s pain points. Boston WorkStation helped to “bridge the gaps” left by system vendors who didn’t deliver on interoperability claims, leaving providers and staff struggling to complete time-consuming manual workflows.
While their journey has been about adapting and growing, their core values have remained consistent. Boston WorkStation tackles many unique issues common to healthcare, but here are a few of the most requested ones:
- ⇾Revenue Cycle Management
- ⇾Claim Denial Management
- ⇾Payment Processing / Collections
- ⇾Supply Chain / Materials / Inventory Management
- ⇾EHR, Kiosk / Portal / Data Migration Tasks
- ⇾Appointments / Scheduling
- ⇾Lab and Telehealth
- ⇾HR Onboarding / Physician Credentialing
- What problem is Boston Software Systems solving & how?
It is estimated that one-third of healthcare spending is wasteful, with no benefit to patients.
There is never enough time for people working in healthcare to complete mind-numbing, repetitive tasks. However, this is the perfect atmosphere for machines. Machines, or “bots” never tire of working 24/7/365. They have a 98% accuracy rate with no sick days or overtime. The addition of a smart “digital workforce” to support a “human workforce” is part of the digital transformation we are seeing in many industries, healthcare included. This is where our automation solution, Boston WorkStation shines.
Let’s take Prior Authorizations for an example. This is a largely manual process, and when time is converted to dollars, the staggering cost for providers is between $23-$31 billion each year. According to a 2021 report, providers could save 16+ minutes per authorization with an automated process, which takes less than a minute. That’s a savings of up to two working days, or 16 hours a week. Boston WorkStation automates the prior authorization process which allows patients to receive medicines, treatments and surgeries faster, and allows providers to be paid for services rendered, eliminating costly delays and improving patient outcomes.
Boston WorkStation provides Improvements in efficiency that lead to improvements for humans in healthcare. Less overtime from practitioners, clinicians and administrative staff. Healthcare facilities can get more work done within existing timeframes and business constraints and without employing additional people.
Providers have additional time to focus their attention on patient care instead of paperwork. If a person can sit in front of a computer and search, compare and manually input data, Boston WorkStation, our intelligent automation solution, can accomplish the same thing, thousands of times faster, more accurately, with less cost and complexity.
This video demonstrates many of the tasks in administrative areas like claims management, invoice processing, revenue cycle management and the multitude of interoperability challenges that came with having separate systems for legacy billing and electronic health records. Boston WorkStation “bridges the gaps” left by system vendors who don’t deliver on interoperability claims, leaving providers and staff struggling to complete time-consuming manual workflows.
- What have been the biggest achievements of Boston Software Systems?
We are extremely proud of our continued accomplishments. Boston Software Systems scored solid A’s in KLAS 2021 “RPA Satisfaction Scores”. The top three reasons cited by our customers were: product value, keeping our promises, and not “nickel and diming” clients for every nuance. In 2022, Boston Software Systems ranked 2nd in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vendor category (second consecutive year). Our employee and customer experience reviews on G2 continue to exemplify our commitment to the customer experience and our organizational culture.
We are in a unique position, as we are not backed by VC funding. We expand our business from within, by cultivating relationships with new clients and sustaining relationships with current clients. As we’ve seen through recent news articles, VC funding, mergers and acquisitions can quickly increase an organization’s size, yet often present complex challenges that do not result in organizational sustainability. At Boston Software Systems, we concentrate on the customer experience, being honest with our customers and delivering a valuable product. That has been our business model for 35 years, and has served us well.
- What have been the biggest challenges for Boston Software Systems & how did you overcome them?
You asked about the challenges we’ve experienced.
When COVID19 hit, it presented the healthcare landscape with one of its biggest challenges, and Boston WorkStation stepped up to provide relief.
Here are just a few of the projects and strategies we deployed:
Claims Status Checks
A healthcare claim status inquiry is a communication between a provider and a payer about a healthcare claim. When a provider contacts a payer to check a claim status, it takes an average of 14 minutes and costs the provider $7.12. By the time a claim reaches a denied status, the provider has lost at least two weeks. Considering that the time between claims submission and payment can be as long as four weeks, these delays are costly. Add to that repeated checks, and it’s easy to see how this cost can rise. This is a largely manual process and when COVID hit, everyone was sent home to work remotely. The entire department was turned upside down, working with children, and pets at homes. Automation stepped in to allow Northwestern Medicine to quickly identify missing claims or information, eliminate timely filing denials, and increase “dollars in the door.” They grew from 1,500-3,000 providers without the need to add ONE additional team member, all due to the automation from Boston WorkStation.
Telehealth and Lab Orders
Telescope Health, a telemedicine provider in Northeast Florida, chose Boston WorkStation to automate patient registration and order entry during the COVID-19 crisis. Telescope Health went from a high-touch, low-volume, concierge telemedicine service to seeing upwards of 7,000 patients within a 6-week period.
Lab orders went from a mere 30 per day, skyrocketing upwards to 600 per day, slowing the registration and order entry process, and making the manual process impossible to sustain. Providers and FTEs were working 20 hours a day, in three shifts, registering and processing patients online and at mobile testing sites, which were set up in coordination with Baptist Health and the city of Jacksonville. The process took 5 FTEs, working on three shifts, manually entering one patient at a time in the system. It was unsustainable.
Boston WorkStation automated the process, bringing efficiency to this telehealth organization. After automation, the process required only 1 floating FTE in an oversight capacity. The automation was quickly scaled to over 200 providers, across mobile testing sites, throughout the city of Jacksonville, and across Northeast Florida.
HRSA Relief Funding
During COVID19, $44 billion from a Provider Relief Fund (PRF) was created by the Federal government. $8.5 billion was allotted for an American Rescue Plan (ARP) for funding in rural areas. In addition, providers who believed their payments were not calculated correctly had an opportunity to request a reconsideration. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) opened a portal for healthcare providers to apply for part of the billions in relief funds. But there were issues with interoperability and specific time constraints. Automation eliminated time-consuming, manual steps Including
- Reviewed patient information for coverage in the EHR
- Captured the necessary information for claims submission
- Navigated to multiple web portals
- Applied for the Temporary ID
- Sent documentation and/or notes back to the EHR
- Ensured timely filing and submits claims for payment
Automation ensured accuracy, which was an important factor of the HRSA program. If a claim was submitted with a potential error, the claim was returned to the provider, delaying the reimbursement process and creating the need to repeat the claims processing steps.
Faster Data in the EHR
With the vaccine distribution process, healthcare quickly needed to identify patient populations, schedule appointments, provide and document vaccine lots, and numbers and navigate HRSA billing loopholes. Boston WorkStation was able to cut through the many steps and multiple systems, and submit claims faster. Automation eliminated up to 20 time-consuming manual steps, that included:
- Sorting through volumes of data to find the right patient population lists for COVID-19 vaccines
- Automated the emails to patients
- Scheduled patients for vaccine appointments, lab tests
- Electronically sent the lab result reporting to providers
- Registered lot numbers, vials, and PPE
- What are you most excited about in healthcare at present? How do you anticipate healthcare will change in the next 5 years?
There are so many exciting technologies that will change the way medicine and healthcare is delivered and received by patients. It’s extremely exciting to read about the way health will be delivered, meeting patients where they are, with new hospital at home capabilities. This will allow patients to receive care by medical professionals without the risks of infection that are present in hospitals.
The rise of mobile apps and sensors will continue to grow, and once these are integrated with the EHR, providers will have a more complete picture of health. However, with each of the new advancements, comes the need to reduce human tasks and processes, and migrate data from additional sources. This is why intelligent automation technologies will continue to scale and grow in the next 5 years.
- What are your favorite educational resources, and how have they influenced you?
I love staying on top of industry trends and news reports, and find many publications and online resources helpful. Podcast wise, I love Gary Vee. He cuts to the chase, using humor and experience. I find that in talking with clients and reviewing their needs each day, I am able to stay up to date with the barriers and challenges in healthcare, and learn more about ways in which we can make their jobs easier.
- Do you have any other key messages for the audience?
Our key message to healthcare organizations looking to implement an RPA solution is to align with the right vendor. Because when the path is not clear, you’ll want a team that you can count on to lead the way. There are a lot of folks out there claiming to be automation companies, with the next best widget for healthcare. Do your research. Boston Software Systems is the global leader in healthcare-specific automation, and the preferred automation partner for hundreds of hospitals, healthcare organizations, and technology partner solutions. Our business model is a flexible one. We offer fixed pricing, which many companies do not. In addition, our technology offering is also flexible. We can deploy the automations for you, mentor your staff to deploy, or a combination of both. Boston WorkStation is available on site, or in the AWS cloud.
After our initial discussion, a Scope of Work is available within 2 business days, with most implementations taking place within 30- 45 days.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Boston Software Systems. We look forward to engaging with your readership.
Contact Details
Website: https://www.bostonsoftwaresystems.com/
Address 75 State Street, Suite 100, Boston, MA 02109
Phone: 1.866.653.5105
email: matt.hawkins@bossosft.com
Twitter: @Bossoft IG: @bostonsoftwaresystems FB: Boston Software Systems
