Accounting FRONT

Cloud Accounting for the Healthcare Abyss

March 1, 2020April 2, 2020 Justin Hubbard, CPA, CGMA appropriate security safeguard, audit phi, business complexity, cloud, cybersecurity firm, editor of InformationAge, finance decision-makers, financial management, financial process, healthcare, Healthcare abyss, healthcare organization, HIPAA, HIPAA compliance, HIPAA requirement, HIPAA-compliant, HIPAA-compliant cloud, HIPAA-compliant cloud account solution, HIPAA/ HITECH-compliant, HITECH-compliant, impact revenue, industry performance, industry whitepaper, InformationAge, Intacct, large health system, lead national cybersecurity firm, pain of financial management, protected health information, sacrifice growth, sage Intacct, sage Intacct 's financial solution, small physician practice, software 's advanced audit trail, tighten regulation, total deployment time, transparency of information, whitepaper

Today’s healthcare organizations—from large health systems to small physician practices— are under pressure to achieve growth amid tightening regulations, consolidations, and other business complexities. It’s essential to monitor performance in real time and keep financial processes running smoothly across multiple locations.

A challenge common to all healthcare CFOs or other finance decision-makers is “trying to gain visibility and transparency of information across the organization in order to better manage costs and link cost to outcomes and industry performance—without negatively impacting revenue and growth,” according to an industry whitepaper.

To manage costs without sacrificing growth, healthcare organizations must find a way to effectively scale their IT systems. Many healthcare organizations are looking to the cloud for answers.

For one thing, the cloud is highly flexible, so healthcare “providers can scale resources up or down as needed,” writes Nick Ismail, editor of InformationAge. “The cloud provides real-time and remote access to applications and resources in a way that’s easy to use. Additionally, it reduces the total deployment time of rolling out new applications.”

Easing the Pain of Financial Management with Cloud Accounting

Financial management is better in the cloud. Sage Intacct, the industry’s only HIPAA-compliant cloud accounting solution, enables finance teams to automate for greater efficiency while providing the visibility needed to make operational improvements. With Sage Intacct, you can:

Safeguard your protected health information (PHI). You can use Sage Intacct’s financial solutions with confidence, knowing that proper tools, security, and agreements are in place to support HIPAA compliance. The software’s advanced audit trail allows you to monitor and audit PHI to support HIPAA requirements. What’s more, Sword and Shield, a leading national cybersecurity firm, has certified Sage Intacct as HIPAA/ HITECH-compliant, which means your data has the appropriate security safeguards. Sage Intacct also enters into business associate agreements with eligible organizations.

Automate key finance and accounting processes, including procure-to-pay and the monthly close. Multi-location organizations can centralize payables and eliminate manual processes for payments and inter-company accounting. With Sage Intacct, you can save time, improve accuracy, and accommodate growth without adding staff.

Get speed and agility for your organization. With the ability to create consolidated financial statements or summary roll-up reports at any time, not just month-end, you can quickly adjust strategies and operations to respond to performance trends. And with browser-based access, your remote managers can access approvals and conduct transactions anywhere, anytime.

See your operations clearly. Sage Intacct allows you to track your financials as well as operational metrics and ratios, like available capacity and revenue per treatment. You can quickly compare financial performance and ratios across your locations and share best practices to improve performance.

Justin Hubbard, CPA, CGMA, is director of accounting and financial outsourcing at Dean Dorton, PLLC. For more information, contact him at jhubbard@deandorton.com.