Last week, B.J. Sintay, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer for Fuse Oncology, sat down with Chris Burgess, Vice President of Clinical Operations for Integrated Oncology Network, (ION), based in Nashville, for a conversation about how S!GNAL is enabling ION’s radiation oncology program to be more successful.

ION’s operations, which span nearly two dozen sites in 17 states, use numerous databases and a wide range of workflows. Each location has unique staffing resources and inherent differences in equipment and implementation processes, which Burgess explains, leads to about “10 different ways to get from point A to point B” regarding charge capture and related workflows.

Due to the heavy human component in charge capture—a complex undertaking for experienced and inexperienced staff alike—ION experienced a lack of consistency within clinics and across clinic locations, including in resultant mistreatment charges and missed revenue opportunities.

After partnering with Fuse to implement the S!GNAL solution and establishing rules around capture, ION is able to confirm accuracy of charge codes, key clinical actions, and necessary documentation for services rendered. Through automation technology, any code that violates the rule set is flagged for further evaluation by staff. So instead of reviewers going through 100 charges, for example, they only have to attend to a handful of flagged ones.

“Our reviewers are appreciating [S!GNAL] more and more every day,” Burgess says.

ION’s clinical teams are gaining accuracy on the front end, benefiting from the ongoing collaboration and expertise imparted by Fuse coding experts. Consistent engagement has led to better compliance and uncovering of lost revenue for more efficient and profitable operations, Burgess explains.

“There's no doubt in my mind with some of the ….manual process that mischarges would get caught, but several of those mischarges would not [have gotten caught]. [They] would have never made it to our billing system to know if it would even get denied, right or accepted. It just would have never been billed.”

ION has been able to quantify these missed revenue opportunities easily through regular reports supplied by Fuse. From the hard data results to improved daily experiences of ION's employees, the organization says S!GNAL finally has given them the confidence that they are finally billing and capturing appropriately and accurately in a way that external audits could not achieve.

“This is so much more than a spot check,” Burgess says. “It’s checking everything.”