June 15, 2022

Top Reasons Why IDP is a Gamechanger for Paperwork Automation in the Healthcare Industry

Healthcare is a document-intensive industry that needs a complete digital transformation. Learn how IDP can help with paperwork automation to reduce costs and save time.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a game-changer for several industries, and healthcare is no different. It is an industry that remains troubled with intensive paperwork, long working hours, resource shortage, and increased administrative spending. Hence, it won't be wrong to say that manual document processing is no longer an option in today’s time and that there is an advanced need for the healthcare institutions to fasten up their daily activities such as patient onboarding time, claims processing, medical billing , enquiry tracking, etc.

As per some research, the want for holistic digital transformation in the healthcare segment is far more than ever. According to Deloitte research, 92% of respondents want better patient experience as part of digital transformation.

While this can be achieved by ways such as manual data processing, and OCRA, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) can help this document-heavy industry can prove to be a game changer for this industry. With a steady mix of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer Vision, IDP has a lot to offer to the healthcare segment.

This article looks at various aspects of paperwork automation through which your healthcare institution can benefit from IDP.

Intelligent Document Processing for Healthcare Industry

IDP software solutions help you capture, extract, mask, and organize information from documents. Besides artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, IDP uses computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and optical character recognition (OCR).

According to a PwC report, healthcare institutions will face a 6.5% increase in treating patients. There is thus a need to curtail operational costs from other areas to compensate for this rise. It can start with streamlining processes and automating mundane tasks that do not contribute enough to the revenue.

Automation is a crucial asset that can save time, reduce costs, and improve productivity. But healthcare is an industry where unstructured data rules the roost. For example, health insurance companies can have documents from vendors, policyholders, and healthcare service providers.

Each will have a different format and may not always be available in a printed form due to handwritten documents. If you are extracting and processing these documents manually, your business is losing out on precious time and money. IDP solutions, irrespective of document types, help you with paperwork automation, streamline workflows, and save costs.

Five Advantages of IDP for the Healthcare Industry

Healthcare institutions using IDP enjoy the following paperwork automation benefits.

Lowering operational spends

The healthcare industry is a high-cost field, and it's only getting more expensive. But you can reduce your costs without sacrificing quality by integrating IDP into your workflow. IDP allows you to analyze medical records, insurance claims, and other documents.

You can automate manual tasks, which frees your employees to focus on revenue-contributing activities. For example, IDP can search specific data points within medical records instead of having an employee scan through documents to look for relevant information.

Avoiding costly errors

Medical errors are always costly and can also prove to be fatal in some cases. It is common for medical errors to be an administrative fault. When analyzing documents manually, your staff could mix up patient names, health records, prescriptions, and even follow-ups.

Healthcare being a sensitive segment needs to avoid even a minor error at all costs. IDP solutions allow you to avoid these costly errors and maintain your reputation.

Improving process workflows

Physicians can lose as much as one-sixth of their working hours to administrative tasks. Now imagine you get the ability to process documents with greater speed and accuracy, combined with the elimination of manual steps. It means you can improve your workflows and save time and money on every document you process.

What an ideal situation it would be if every patient's bill for their visit to the clinic got processed automatically, without any staff touching it? Or how about if patients' insurance forms were automatically matched to their records? IDP can help you achieve these things and enjoy better workflows.

Allowing easy data access

IDP is the key to easy data access for the healthcare industry, which relies on effective record-keeping. However, with increasing amounts of information being collected and stored, it is essential to ensure your systems are as efficient as possible.

IDP allows you to automate managing your documents, which saves time and money. It works by integrating with ERP systems and other document management tools, allowing data access from one place. This makes it easy for healthcare organizations to share their data with stakeholders—a necessity when working in such a heavily regulated environment.

Improving data security

With a constantly evolving regulatory environment coupled with increasing patient demands, it can be tough to keep up with everything. In addition to maintaining compliance with HIPAA and other laws, healthcare providers need to manage records more carefully than ever.

IDP systems are specifically designed to handle sensitive data, like patient records, with care so that they don't get compromised or mishandled by unauthorized personnel. These systems ensure that only authorized personnel can access information. Masking data is also possible through data redaction technology.

IDP Use Cases for the Healthcare Industry

Here are the various ways IDP solutions apply to paperwork automation in the healthcare industry.

Automated onboarding of patients

The healthcare industry relies heavily on systems that work well together to ensure the quality of care its patients receive. It is also an industry that can be very complex, making it hard for providers to keep up with various regulations.

One of the essential parts of this process is patient onboarding, the process by which a new patient's information gets added to an electronic database. It includes everything from basic demographic data like name and address to more complicated information like insurance coverage and medical history.

Patient onboarding is one of the critical steps in any hospital stay, as it helps ensure that all necessary information has been collected and entered correctly. The problem, however, is that this process can take hours or even days if done manually. And that's just not acceptable in today's fast-paced era of healthcare.

That's why many hospitals are turning to IDP solutions to automate their workflows. They get all their patients' information into their databases quickly and accurately without sacrificing quality, accuracy, or risking violating HIPAA regulations.

Seamless data extraction from patient records

IDP allows quick and accurate data extraction from patient records. It helps to parse the data from the documents and normalize it for analysis. The method is ideal for physicians, who often need to extract data from patient records and enter it into a database.

The main advantage of using IDP is that it allows physicians to focus on their patients instead of spending time entering data into databases manually. It can result in more accurate information entered into the database and less time wasted on manual data entry.

IDP and Compliance with HIPAA Regulations

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of laws that govern the protection of medical records. HIPAA compliance is essential for any healthcare provider. The HIPAA rules require that all personal health information need security and encryption through secure means.

Healthcare institutions also need adequate security policies, procedures, and physical safeguards. IDP helps healthcare providers adhere to these regulations by providing a centralized system for managing sensitive data. Advanced security measures such as encryption and masking protect data at every stage of the paperwork automation process.

Achieve Seamless Paperwork Automation with VisionERA

VisionERA is a smart IDP solution that will be your ideal partner to automate the mundane document processing activity. It packs in the powerful HI-AI collaboration that is ideal for your document-heavy healthcare institution.

The continuous feedback learning mechanism of VisionERA enables it to adapt and evolve with advanced capabilities over time. The customization feature means you can tailor it to suit your unique business requirements. Plug-and-play functions with advanced drag-and-drop features will truly be a delight for your team.

Besides offering a 100% performance guarantee, VisionERA allows you to process documents 20x faster and experience 3x better productivity. Excited to see VisionERA in action? Schedule your free demo today by clicking on the CTA below.

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