Michael Ehlen Email & Phone Number

Savannah, Georgia Area

Reporting to the C-Suite, provide interim revenue cycle consulting services including interim director assignments, operational assessments, financial analyses, feasibility studies, work flow process improvement projects, key performance indicator reporting, managed care contract modeling and denials management to senior executives.Achievements:• Redesigned outpatient nursing infusion charge capture process to capture 20% more revenue. • Increased registration guarantor accuracy by 20% using QA measures.• Increased net cash by 15% for Critical Access Hospital by renegotiating managed care contracts. • Reduced payor denials by 28% using tighter controls on physician order entry and compliance. • Introduced new chargemaster and claims rules/mapping to increase reimbursement by 12%.• Reduced net days in accounts receivable by over 25 % through redesign of PFS work flows.• Increased cost report reimbursement by 8% through proper recording of bad debt adjustments. • Designed physician compensation models and patient panels to reduce turn-around by over 25%.

Beaufort, South Carolina

Responsible for management of 35 FTE’s, with direct responsibility for revenue cycle functions including scheduling, pre-certification, insurance verification,preregistration, registration, collections, administration and design of software and staff training programs.Achievements: • Increased registration accuracy by 20% using QA measures. • Improved point of service collections from $70k a month to $240k a month through staff training. • Reduced registration patient wait times system-wide by 15% by redeploying staffing resources. • Increased patient satisfaction scores by 8% by improving standards. • Expanded pre-registration services from 55% to 90% by creating a pre-service department. • Achieved staff turn-over goals of less than 15% annually by implementing career ladders. • Reduced Medicaid A/R by $1.5 million by implementing financial counseling standards. • Introduced hospital wide medical necessity tracking which reduced denials by over $600k.

Beaufort, South Carolina

Leadership role for financial and revenue cycle data collection projects. Developed key reports and metrics to identify trends in accounts receivables, patient charge activity, managed care contract analysis, and physician productivity. Maintained dashboard for KPI’s for key revenue cycle metrics. Responsible for all claim dictionaries, payor maps, clearing house rules and data tables.Achievements: • Optimized clean claim submissions from 65% to 95% by redesigning payor edits and work flows. • Introduced automatic scripts to post 3rd party notes, saving 80 hours a week of staffing hours. • Eliminated payor denials to avoid financial losses of $5 million in one year. • Increased outpatient net revenue up to 3% by detecting payor payment and contractual errors. • Decreased collection agency fees by 10% through renegotiating agency contracts. • Achieved cuts of over $83k out of the FTE budget by aligning PFS staff to work standards. • Added $1.2 million of cost report reimbursement through automation of Medicare HMO reporting.

Clearwater, Florida

Served as independent consultant for revenue cycle engagements for hospital and physician clients, including project management, interim on-site management, physician practice assessments, revenue cycle design, central business office migration, staff redeployment, key performance improvements and productivity benchmarks.Achievements:• Increased commercial carrier revenues by 10% using statistical and payment models• Decreased charge recovery audit errors to less than 2% per payor using QA measures. • Introduced central billing office models to reduce FTE budgets by 10% or greater. • Increased outpatient net revenue up to 5% by detecting payor underpayments. • Reduced payor denials by 15% creating custom ad-hoc reports.

Des Moines, Iowa Area

Reporting to the Chief Finance Officer, responsible for the management of 18 FTE’s, with direct responsibility for the Patient Accounts Receivable functions, including registration, financial counseling, insurance verification, scheduling, billing, collections, cash posting and denials.Achievements:• Reduced net days in accounts receivable by over 30 % through redesign of PFS work flows. • Achieved a cash ratio greater than 100% for 21 out of 23 months using stretch goals.• Maintained billed inpatient receivables over 90 days aged fewer than 3% for entire tenure. • Added a self-pay “Early Out” program resulting in a 20% reduction in collection agency fees.

Brentwood, Tennessee

Reporting to the Regional Vice President, served as contract revenue cycle consultant for revenue cycle engagements for hospital and physician clients. Recommended operational improvements for the company’s 171 hospitals under management.Achievements:• Increased net revenue by 5%-15% performing chargemaster and fee schedule reviews for clients. • Reduced operating costs by 5% or more performing operational assessments for physician practices. • Reduced payor denials by 15% using a rigorous set of reporting metrics to drive improvements.

Seminole, Florida

Reporting to the Director of Patient Financial Services, managed the billing, collections, cash posting and customer service.Achievements:• Reduced net days in accounts receivable from over 70 days to less than 53 days. • Reduced the discharged, not final billed accounts receivable from 11 days to 5 days.