By George Furlong, Chief Strategy Officer accūrō Solutions
As accūrō Solutions continues to grow and deliver for our clients, I have come to the realization that while our newly developed proprietary technology platform, ARC, is a differentiator for us, it is not the only attribute that successfully brings efficiency and improved outcomes to our clients. Rather, it is the combination of new technology and thought leadership unearthed when the organization was formed.
When looking at the solutions accūrō has provided to its clients in our past four years of business, an analogy comes to mind. When my wife and I were looking for a home where we could continue to raise our family, we did not have the option to build new, using the latest advancements in building materials, design, and integrated technology. Therefore, we decided to buy a previously built home. While searching, we had a list of features that were important to us. Our “Wishlist” consisted of all sorts of asks: an ideal home layout on a large lot, whole-home Wi-Fi, and high-technology security systems/features, to name a few. As we searched, we realized that many existing homes met some but not all our Wishlist items, therefore we ended up settling on many features. We were able to make some changes to obtain a few more of the desired features, but that took a long time and plenty of money. I can only dream of the home that I would build if we were the architect.
That is what makes accūrō Solutions different and successful. When we formed our company, we acted as architects. We surveyed dozens of industry leaders and prospective clients to gain insight on their Wishlist items for a bill review system and workflow solution. Based on their asks, combined with 300+ years of experience in our leadership team alone, we were able to design, build, and deliver a technology platform and service model that incorporated our collective Wishlists. Some of these items included:
- Customizable Workflows: accūrō’s systems allow for unique workflow definition at every level of the customers’ organizational structure, as well as the ability for rules to modify workflows based on specific bill conditions, creating the ultimate configurability and flexibility.
- Ease-of-Use Design: The ARC user interface was designed to be simplistic and intuitive to bring all users a positive experience and improve efficiencies.
- Newest Technology: At our foundation, accūrō utilized the latest in technology – AI tools, Continuous Integration/Delivery (CI/CD), cloud-native software, observability tools, and reporting capabilities – to enable faster and more reliable software delivery through automation and collaboration. And we continue to challenge ourselves to research and develop innovative technologies to remain at the forefront of our industry.
- Important Databases: We leverage databases that had limited functionality or were not comprehensive enough when legacy systems were developed to bring value to the bill review process – NPI and Taxonomy databases come to mind – increasing our ability to consistently provide the greatest level of savings.
- New trademarks of the industry: Legacy platforms were developed when all medical bills were submitted via paper and there was little to no regulatory compliance concerns. ARC was developed with electronic billing and regulatory compliance at the core of the platform.
To accommodate compliance and technological advances, legacy systems (like our pre-existing home) have bolted on features to their pre-existing platforms. This creates challenges and lacks stability, leading to longer and more-costly programming efforts to meet the current needs of the industry. The extra time and cost is primarily associated with ensuring that there are no unintended consequences of change. Custom processes were not a major consideration at the invention of legacy systems. accūrō, though, developed the technology and service model knowing that client-level customization is critical to long-term success.
Because we could use the latest technology and design features to build a new platform, accūrō has delivered superior outcomes for our clients – improving workflows and efficiency of all stakeholders in the process. Customer service improvements have been achieved in our model, not necessarily because we are more focused on service, but because our technology platform allows us to adapt and respond more quickly and effectively to our clients’ requests. accūrō has also been able to abide by auditing standards such as SOC and HITRUST from our inception – similar to building a house with current building code standards in mind, as opposed to retrofitting your home to keep pace with changes.
With our new home, we now have a space that we have since renovated to include some of our Wishlist items. It goes without saying that we have been limited, and while we are happy with our space, we would be more satisfied if the house came with all the features we wanted in the first place, or if we were to act as the architects of a new place altogether.
The design, location, and features of a home are important for the families they support. Relatedly, our team and customizable technology best support our ability to deliver better outcomes for our clients. Our software development has allowed us to ship high-quality updates and new functionality to our clients faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Changing bill review providers is not as difficult as many payors believe, and our clients would agree that the cost of not changing is a lost opportunity. And accūrō Solutions is uniquely positioned, allowing our clients to leverage our solutions to be the architect of their own bill review programs.
About the Author
George Furlong currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer. With over 30 years of experience, George has held senior management positions with managed care organizations, third-party administrators, and carriers, with a focus on workers’ compensation claims management solutions and data analytics. His leadership positions include tenures at Sedgwick Claims Management, Universal SmartComp, Bunch and Associates, and Choice Medical Management.
About accūrō Solutions
accūrō Solutions is a national technology company which provides complete and transparent bill processing services to drive the workflow from the mailroom, through medical bill review, and provider payment for companies in the property and casualty insurance industry.
To learn more, visit our website at www.accurosolutions.com.
Partner Post:
This is a sponsored post from WorkCompWire marketing partner accūrō Solutions.