Tennr report: Early paperwork problems are costly for independent providers

NEW YORK – Independent health care providers lose more than 10% (or $2.2 million) every year due to claim denials that inevitably happen while managing their backlog of patient referrals, according to Tennr’s first Healthcare Provider Benchmark Report. 

The report analyzed data from health care organizations using Tennr’s platform to process tens of millions of patients and examined why insurance claims get denied, tracing those denials back to specific paperwork problems that happen early in the process. The report compared performance before and after using Tennr's platform, while adjusting for organizational differences, such as size, types of insurance, services provided and location. 

Tennr's key findings: 

• 10% (or $2.2 million) of revenue lost annually: Independent providers lose this amount in revenue each year when intake paperwork is missing the information that insurers require to approve a patient's treatment.  

• Half of all referrals disappear: The health care industry faces a significant "leakage" problem where referrals simply fall through the cracks. On average, only 54% of faxed referrals actually turn into orders or scheduled care, according to industry estimates. Providers using Tennr to process their referrals and streamline the intake process convert 68% or more patients, the company says. 

• Productivity varies widely: The report reveals massive differences in how much patient intake and processing teams can handle. Traditional manual processing averages fewer than 100 orders per full-time employee weekly 

The 'hidden loss fallacy' 

Tennr says it levels the playing field by giving independents enterprise-grade tools to compete, keep their doors open and preserve competition, which benefits both patients and pricing. 

"Most providers are dealing with what we call the 'hidden loss fallacy,' where they're pouring time and money into fixing billing issues after the fact, when the real opportunity is catching mistakes and missed patients earlier in the referral process," said Trey Holterman, co-founder and CEO of Tennr. "Our data shows that the majority of costly claim denials are conceived during the initial referral intake process, not during billing."