Why Traditional Options Don't Solve The Need For Flexible Staff And Resourcing

In the last article, we touched on the varying factors driving a need for more flexible capacity in the revenue cycle. Varying demands showing up at the door step over the last few years have led to variable availability of staff to do the real and core work of converting revenue to cash while demands on performance are not changing and most-likely increasing. This leads to either losing cash collections or not fully supporting the other needs, which in the long-term will also impact cash.

Bottom line, demand for revenue cycle resources is more variable than ever before, and what we need depends on what is going on at that moment in time. Solutions to match staff capacity to our needs are limited:

1.      We can stretch the existing staff with some overtime. The issue is, this is an expensive and very limited option before staff burns out. In other words, it is not practical for the long-term.

2.      We can hire some temporary staff through one of the local agencies— but qualifications are often questionable. We have to manage this new workforce in addition to our regular job, and it requires a bit of training.

3.      We can try to expand the budget and add to permanent FTEs— but then, we don’t need the resources all of the time and budgets are usually limited.

4.      Lastly, we can outsource. However outsourcing often comes with a loss of control, opaqueness and significant cost, in addition to long timelines to clear all the contracting hurdles.

Traditional options are limited in addressing the need to have just the right capacity at the right time.

Next week we will take a look at what a solution may need to look like to solve the we never have the exact-right number of resources exactly when we need them issue.