During the pandemic, hospitals and health systems have faced difficulty in maintaining their Medicaid revenue levels. With reductions in patient volume, restrictions on hospital visitations, and changing work and life routines for patients and hospital staff, the previous process for Medicaid enrollment was no longer feasible. Without the implementation of significant process and technological improvements, hospitals were in danger of their Medicaid revenue cratering.
CBIZ KA Consulting Services faced a pandemic-related reduction in access for many of our Medicaid eligibility client sites. Despite the new challenges that we were encountering, our clients were counting on us to maintain our excellent level of service. As a result, we developed our Virtual Eligibility Counselor (VEC) service. VEC has a number of capabilities to facilitate the Medicaid enrollment process. Most importantly, VEC provides all eligibility patients with face-to-face interactions either onsite or remotely. Although VEC started out of necessity, it has become a big hit with our eligibility clients and patients; patients have gravitated to our virtual services:
- They can set up an appointment online to meet with a CBIZ eligibility counselor.
- They can have face-to-face interactions with our representatives without leaving their home or jobsite. Our counselors help guide them through the enrollment process.
- They can upload key eligibility forms and information on our HIPAA-compliant server.
The early results for VEC have been stunning. Over 33% of our eligibility applicants have used one of our virtual services. The added convenience of VEC has reduced Medicaid enrollment barriers. As a result, CBIZ has increased its percentage of completed Medicaid applications and the number of applications that have successfully been converted into Medicaid reimbursement for our clients. Although our conversion percentage has always been higher than the industry average, VEC has enabled us to provide additional value to our clients and Medicaid applicants. Despite census drops among many of our clients throughout the pandemic, with VEC our clients have maintained and even grown their Medicaid revenue.
Even among our clients where patient volume has returned to pre-pandemic levels and COVID restrictions have been lifted, VEC continues to play a prominent role in the Medicaid enrollment process and will be an ongoing option for applicants, who have responded positively to VEC’s ease and convenience.
I invite you to read CBIZ's Virtual Eligibility Counselor Success Stories. These stories highlight CBIZ’s commitment to our clients and their patients; we go the extra mile during the Medicaid application process, leading to additional benefits for patients and revenue for our clients.
If you have any questions about our VEC service, I would love to talk with you. Please email me or contact me at 609-918-0990.
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