Administrative burden in healthcare encompasses non-clinical tasks like paperwork, billing, insurance coordination, and compliance requirements, which consume time, money, and resources that could otherwise go to patient care.
The burden of healthcare administration is a multi-faceted challenge that can affect healthcare costs. According to a research brief published in Health Affairs, administrative spending accounts for up to 30% of total healthcare costs in the United States. This figure underscores the need for streamlined processes and a closer examination of how to reduce these costs.
Plus, time spent on administration can eat into a clinician’s time to see patients, affecting patient experience. One time-and-motion study found that physicians spent twice as much time on paperwork as they did with patients.
Practices can reduce this burden by integrating telehealth workflows, automating communications and scheduling, digitizing assessments, and integrating tools with electronic health records (EHRs).
Article Highlights
Administrative burden is the time clinicians and staff spend on administrative support tasks that detract from direct patient care.
Administrative burden refers to the time and effort physicians, health care providers, clinicians, and administrative staff spend on administrative clinical support functions that detract from direct patient care.
Administrative burden differs from administrative waste, which refers to excessive or unnecessary administrative expenses in the healthcare system that do not contribute to patient care or outcomes.
Examples of such tasks may include:
These tasks, while necessary for the functioning of healthcare practices, can consume a substantial portion of the workday, leaving less time for patient care.
Looking at specific examples can help us to better understand the administrative burden in healthcare.
Keeping detailed records is essential to patient care. Meticulously maintaining patient histories, recording detailed treatment plans, and updating patient information with precision are important tasks.
When done manually, or recorded on paper, these tasks can be time-consuming and prone to error. One study of physician EHR time found that physicians spend a large portion of their day using EHRs to document and support medical care. Fortunately, automated and digitized record-keeping is becoming more ubiquitous.
Manual scheduling potentially requires additional healthcare staff and excessive time coordinating with patients via email or phone. Sending reminders and answering ad hoc patient queries can quickly accumulate.
Verifying coverage, submitting claims, and resolving billing issues are another essential but potentially time consuming and frustrating administration responsibility. One study on care coordination found that insurers lacked “awareness of care coordination presence within practices,” indicating a potential disconnect in understanding the administrative workload. Better coordination between payers and providers is called for here.
Whether cognitive tests, mental and behavioral assessments, or surveys, paper assessments can be easier to memorize, susceptible to scoring errors, and require additional work to manually administer then upload the information to patient records.
Administrative burden has impacts both from the physician and healthcare staff perspective as well as patient perspective. Below we’ll explore the impacts and how addressing administrative burden is part of a patient-centered approach to healthcare.
Administrative burden not only contributes to physician burnout and impacts patient care, but also consumes a significant amount of total national health expenditures.
Over 60% of physicians have reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, according to a national AMA survey. Among the leading causes, one study of burnout drivers found that work overload was significantly associated with burnout.
Read more: Tackling Physician Burnout: Strategies for Well-Being and Resilience
On the economic front, administrative burdens are a major contributor to health spending. According to a Health Affairs research brief, at least half of administrative spending is wasteful, and could be addressed with more streamlined workflows. According to one McKinsey report, potentially $265 billion could be saved annually in unnecessary healthcare spending costs.
These costs can take the form of non-clinical spending, healthcare cost inflation, budgetary strain, and resource diversion. In other words, resources are spent on administrative tasks that could otherwise be directed to improving patient care.
Patients also may encounter financial burdens due to the complexity of healthcare administration. Understanding insurance requirements can involve a steep learning curve, made more complicated for patients with barriers such as language, cognitive conditions, or caregiver role strain.
Incomplete documentation, for example, can lead to insurance denials, which puts the cost of healthcare back on patients. One article on insurance denials reports that 56% of Medicare Advantage plans had improper payment denials. Additionally, 45% of denial letters contained errors or omitted crucial information needed for appeals. Without knowledge of the appeals process, patients potentially take on costs that could otherwise be avoided.
Administration is a necessary part of medical practice workflows, and yet it can become a burden that slows down other essential workflows, such as patient care.
Examples of the business impacts of administrative burden include:
From the patient’s perspective, the administrative burden directly translates to less time with their healthcare providers and more time dealing with paperwork, phone calls, and insurance issues. This shift away from patient-centered care can lead to poorer health outcomes and decreased satisfaction with the healthcare experience.
Despite the significant challenges presented by the administrative burden in healthcare, numerous potential solutions can help improve operational efficiency. By implementing these solutions, healthcare providers can improve the quality of care and reduce administrative costs.
Healthcare providers can now deliver services remotely, a shift that can lead to a significant reduction in administrative tasks. In one study of physician telehealth plans, more than 70% of physicians expressed an intention to incorporate telehealth into their practice.
Integrating telehealth into healthcare practices can simplify or automate:
Additionally, the adoption of specialized telehealth equipment can enhance these processes by providing the necessary tools for efficient remote consultations and treatments. Overall, telehealth presents a powerful strategy for healthcare providers looking to reduce administrative workload and focus more on patient care.
Automation can reduce the time and effort required for administrative tasks, freeing up resources for patient care. For example, automation can reduce the potential for errors, improving the accuracy and reliability of administrative processes.
Some of the leading provider frustrations with EHRs have to do with the time spent manually inputting patient information, complicated processes for updating and adding to these records, or having to interpret data that’s not presented in a user-friendly way.
EHR integrations can help automate the more time-consuming elements of EHR management, and help:
Generative AI uses machine learning and natural language processing to automate tasks that traditionally require significant human effort.
According to a Medical Futurist article, one of the primary uses of artificial intelligence in healthcare is managing data. AI can be helpful when handling the collection, storage, and tracking of data, which is the initial step toward transforming current healthcare systems.
Considerations for use:
Making the switch from pen-and-paper assessments to computerized versions can reduce the time spent administering, scoring, and recording assessments, freeing up more time for face-to-face patient care.
Creyos offers computerized cognitive testing as well as standard mental and behavioral health questionnaires. By accessing these through a central health platform, healthcare providers get an automatically generated report of a patient’s scores that are easy to upload to an EHR.
Assessments can be administered in-clinic or even via telemedicine, reducing the need for in-person appointments or optimizing the time that a clinician has to spend interpreting results with the patient during a visit. The convenience of Creyos' at-home or in-clinic testing can lead to increased patient compliance and timely data collection, which in turn could expedite diagnoses and treatment plans.
Using computerized standardized tests can help:
Read our case study to learn how Yukon Neurology achieved 99% patient compliance for cognitive testing while saving up to 4 hours per patient to complete comprehensive neuropsychological testing.
Strategies such as integrating telehealth workflows, automating administrative tasks, digitizing assessments, and integrating with EHRs can help practices reduce this burden.
Creyos Health was also designed to deliver robust cognitive assessment while improving operational efficiency. Scientifically validated testing methods that are then instantly and automatically compiled into an easy-to-interpret report can drastically boost the quality of patient care while easing administrative burden for providers.
Navigating the healthcare system shows that dealing with administrative tasks is a significant challenge. It requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders, from healthcare providers to policymakers. But, with the right strategies and a commitment to change, we can work towards a healthcare system that is more efficient, more effective, and more patient-centered.
Written by Mike Battista, Director of Science & Research at Creyos
Mike Battista specializes in brain health, cognition, and neuropsychological testing. He received his PhD in personality and measurement psychology at Western University in 2010 and has been doing fun and useful stuff in the intersection between science and technology ever since.