The Winter Olympics are here! If you’re like me, you’re looking forward to the excitement and thrills of international competition! I am a snowboarder so I have a personal love for winter sports and will be glued to my TV and social media feeds watching the events and keeping medal counts. There is such an inspirational culture built at the Olympics with athletes, as both teammates and competitors, pushing each other to be their best.
So why am I bringing up the Olympics? Two words: DETERMINATION & TRAINING. These exceptional athletes don’t just roll out of bed and suddenly they’re the best. They work hard – harder and smarter than anyone else. They train, plan, fail, learn, push, excel and do what it takes to be better than the competition in hopes that the long hours of preparing and executing a training plan will pay off. When the pressure mounts, these athletes will feel reassured that they’ve done enough to take their place on the podium.
Healthcare payers should have this same determined mentality when dealing with their Provider Networks. We all know that CMS is cracking down on the accuracy of Provider Networks and compliance and/or enforcement action is right around the corner. It’s time to evaluate your current processes, learn what’s worked and what hasn’t, develop an action plan and then train your team on how to support that strategy to ensure your Provider Data is up-to-date and accurate. Once you achieve that goal, it will take the same consistent effort and commitment to manage that data so it remains in compliance. Athletes have weights, cardio workouts, diet, a team of trainers and sponsor partnerships to keep them strong and competitive. Healthcare Payers have technology, experience, skilled employees and resourceful executives to keep them strong and competitive. Using solutions to monitor provider data and automatically execute provider outreach to verify data is how payers can train for their gold medal. You can’t sit idly or settle for what you’ve always done and expect to swiftly pass an audit when CMS calls. Times are changing and so should your business strategy. Make a choice to be the exceptional athlete in your industry and work hard, train, be a leader and surround yourself with a talented, knowledgeable team to help ensure success.
