What to know when winding down legacy A/R systems

Is your organization considering a transition to a new accounts receivable (A/R) system?

If so, there are many decisions that need to be made regarding the legacy system. On a March 25 episode of The Revenue Integrity Show: A NAHRI Podcast, NAHRI Director Jaclyn Fitzgerald, CHRI and Jeremy Henry, VP of business development at Harmony Healthcare IT in South Bend, Indiana, discussed the various options.

As Henry noted, leaving data in the legacy system creates inherent security risk.

“The other option is going into an archive and unwinding in a secure environment that you’ve earned over the years and months, in a format that is somewhat familiar to the users,” Henry said. “And that really allows the user of the new A/R system and revenue cycle system on the HR, EMR side to focus on new billing and set up for future revenue cycle success in the new system.”

In a review of the pros and cons of archiving, Henry explained how users working in the new A/R environment experience a “good, clean break” and can benefit from the delineation between the legacy system and the new system.

“The other great aspect from the management perspective is that you can manage the legacy in a separate silo,” Henry said. “You can run all the reports and do everything you did in the old legacy system that you can in the archive. So, at the end of the day, it enables really good management and accountability for the organization. Old is old and new is new.”

Many functions are possible with archiving, according to Henry, including the following:

• Sending statements
• Posting payments
• Refiling 837s
• Receiving 835s
• Adjustments
• Memos
• Refund requests

Henry also noted that standard reports and extracts are available with archiving.

“We can monitor all the audit logs and customize every aspect of the view by security level and data type, which I think is great for usability,” Henry said. “Speaking to revenue integrity analysts, I believe that customization aspect is very important.”

For more information on winding down legacy A/R systems, check out the March 25 podcast.

If you would like to be a guest on an upcoming podcast, please contact us at nahri@hcpro.com.