A strong health care system does not just rely on patients and their providers to maintain success; it also relies on skills beyond practicing medicine. Essential to this success is the Department of Medicine’s Revenue Managers, Dianne Tadlock and Jennifer Garrett.
As employees of the Private Diagnostic Clinic (PDC), they have the unique arrangement of having the Department as their No. 1 customer. They work in tandem with the department’s administration and providers.
To ensure cohesiveness, Tadlock and Garrett share an office space inside the department. They bring a combined 67 years of healthcare experience to the Department of Medicine.
“We can pretty much make or break the revenue cycle,” said Tadlock. “The Department, the physicians, all depend on the receipts from [our] work to pay for their expenses.”
The role of the revenue manager is to oversee the department’s revenue cycle activities associated with clinical activities, partner with physicians on education and training related to revenue cycle functions, engage departmental leadership on all revenue cycle matters, with the goal of maximizing reimbursement in a cost-effective manner that is in compliance with federal, state and payer-specific billing requirements.
Tadlock and Garrett develop and prepare reports to track operational performance across the department, identify revenue cycle problems and trends and use this data to resolve issues and implement solutions for improvement.
Revenue managers are required to stay on top of the daily changing payer regulations and healthcare trends as they relate to revenue, and they must be ready to coordinate the implementation of those changes to Duke’s billing system when needed.
Because of the complexity of our healthcare insurance industry, physicians often ask for the Revenue Manager’s help to assist their patients with insurance problems related to non-payment.
“We are glad to help,” said Tadlock and Garrett. “Helping to unravel the problem will not only help the patient, but it will bring in the expected revenue to the department.”
This story was written by Tia Mitchell, communications intern for the Department of Medicine.