Navicure, a provider of cloud-based healthcare claims management, patient payment and data analytics solutions, today announced key findings from its most recent national survey highlighting current data analytics usage and additional needs for healthcare organizations. Deployed in May and June 2016 in conjunction with Porter Research, the survey findings revealed that 55 percent of respondents do not have a data analytics solution in place to improve their revenue cycle, yet nearly half (45%) are currently looking to implement one.

The majority of survey respondents were executives (42%), practice administrators (35%) and billing managers (22%). Respondents represented a broad range of specialties and sizes: 43 percent from organizations with one to 10 providers; 27 percent with 11 to 50 providers; 9 percent with 51 to 100 providers; and 21 percent with more than 100 providers.

Among respondents who are using a data analytics solution, the survey explored themes of processes, challenges and technologies. Key findings showed:

Data analytics and reporting is extremely important to healthcare organizations. The overwhelming majority of respondents (88%) indicated it is extremely or very important for making informed business decisions. Further, 73 percent viewed it as a high priority for their organization.

Lack of time/resources is the primary data analytics solution challenge. The largest share of respondents (38%) said their biggest challenge in leveraging insights from their data analytics solution is a lack of time and resources to focus on data analytics, followed by the inability to benchmark performance against peer organizations (25%). Lastly, 19 percent of respondents noted the difficulty of obtaining actionable reports to help address issues.

Organizations are achieving positive results with data analytics and reporting solutions. The majority (71%) of organizations noted these solutions have helped them achieve cash flow improvement through reducing days in A/R, followed by increasing revenue by identifying bottlenecks to get paid more quickly (56%). Almost half (48%) indicated staff productivity benefited from data analytics because it helped identify additional training needed.

“Healthcare organizations are realizing the benefits of implementing a robust data analytics and reporting program,” said Jim Denny, founder and CEO of Navicure. “As organizations are tasked to further improve and report value, this research confirms data analytics and reporting solutions will play an increasingly important role. Implementing a user-friendly solution that streamlines reporting with actionable data will facilitate informed decision making and ongoing revenue cycle improvements, helping organizations achieve greater financial health and position them for future success.”