Case Study: UC Health
UC Health, based in Cincinnati, offers world-class care from the region's top clinicians and researchers. The Revenue Cycle Support team, headed up by Jami Butcher manages all payor website access for UC Health. This includes the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Westchester Hospital, Daniel Drake Center, and a large UC Physicians Group as well.
With over six-hundred (600) users and counting, UP Health is a quickly growing organization with a payor system that was quickly getting out of hand.
They have been working and growing with Zync Tech Group since June of 2018.
The Challenge
UC Health faced many problems as an organization, mainly controlling access. When a user was terminated, or even when a user transitioned to a new role within UC Health and their access level changed, the task of altering or revoking access was overwhelming.
With a faulty internal process and several hundred active employees who could need access to any possibility of over fifty (50) available websites, the UC Health revenue cycle support team was completely overloaded. They were also tasked with ensuring that only authorized users access to Payor sites existed and that once an employee that had site access was revoked with 100% confidence upon no longer being employed.
The team at UC Health is not alone in this feeling of inundation. Roughly ninety-two percent (92%) of the providers we spoke with admitted they’re not comfortable with the current process of managing and administering access to payor websites.
Additionally, keeping track of payor websites, access is decentralized, falling on the manager or supervisor of a specific area, such as the business office.
They needed help managing access, maintaining ePHI compliance and removing unnecessary users from these accounts.
The Solution
“Zync became a key component to root out unauthorized users and aligned nicely with our internal process to audit and manage any former employee and their potential access. Another key to our success was the cross team collaboration and support from our RCM leadership along with IT security leadership”. Jami Butcher, UC Health Revenue Cycle Support
Zync Tech Group, based in Carrollton, Georgia is passionate about its mission for better health information security. Through its framework of experts in technology and operational professionals, Zync strives to empower healthcare organizations with technology that improves their operational efficiency while securing protected health information so that they can deliver the best possible patient care.
After meeting with the security team, directors, vice president, users at UC Health, we narrowed the concerns to
Managing access
Maintaining ePHI compliance
Removing unnecessary users from these accounts.
It was quickly realized that Zync would easily incorporate into the daily work routine of the staff with minimal effort or change for any end-user.
Since Zync operates as a Software As A Service (SaaS) solution, Up Health’s team was able to start implementing the solution from day one without installing software applications.
Removing Unnecessary Users
Zync made it easy to pull reports directly from the payor websites and send an invitation to all active users listed on that account with instructions to verify their access. Those who did not respond to the invite had their access terminated at the website level with the assumption that they would no longer need that access. Those who had overlooked the invitation, but still needed access were able to alert the team and be directed to the invite.
The team can now see which associates are logging in, how often, and we can see what sites are not being used. Also, each of the, now active, users are able to personalize their Zkeep profile with the sites that they need versus being given access to sites that they will never use.
With this clean and clear snapshot of activity, unneeded access could be eliminating ensuring they are not paying for licenses that are not being used.
Managing Access
Zync makes revoking access as easy as one click.
When an associate leaves the organization, UC Health is now able to turn off the access with one click. They can encrypt passwords and secure these websites which prevented any unauthorized usage after termination.
As an added bonus, locked accounts and forgotten passwords are no longer a daily struggle for admin.
Zync manages the passwords and saves hours of repetitive reset and reinstatement.
Clear Reporting
The UC Health team can pull reports each month to be able to audit the activities for each user. Unlike before, when the numbers were in weeks, Zync allows precise audits down to the minutes on a payors site.
Zync was able to address each one of the team’s issues and concerns, creating a functioning process that not only streamlines the access requests but also saves the admins and users time, thereby increasing productivity companywide.
Results
UC Health’s team found an opportunity to regain control over access and limit unnecessary accounts though Zync. Zync helps with coordinating all the user access in a single application- so you can feel in control again.
No more password hassles. One-hundred percent (100%) control over user access with one-click revoke.
Greater Information Security
At UC, Zync began by securing data by deactivating registered users who did not require access to the payor website. This protects patient information from unauthorized users and facilitates compliance with HIPAA Security Rule.
Total users registered with Payor website access before Zync: over 1500
After Zync: less than 700 (roughly half) – all other users were fully deactivated
Improved Staff Efficiency
The implementation of Zkeep directly improved staff operational efficiency. Users log in once for access to all the insurance company websites- with an unlimited number of payors available. There are no password hassles to access each payor website.
This yields significant time savings as users are able to log in to one application and in one single click being able to launch into the payor site to perform their activity.
UP’s staff efficiency increased a staggering 200-800%
Time spent by users logging into Payor websites 30-90 seconds per site before Zync
After Zync: 10 second avg. per site per user
Simpler Audits
HIPAA Security is made simple with on-demand HIPAA Security Rule Audit documentation and user usage reporting for at-a-glance understanding.
For some organizations, cleaning up for compliance is vital. Zync allows UC Health to ensure only authorized users have access to payor websites and avoid any access to PHI post-employment.
Things with Zync went smoothly. As Jami Butcher, Senior Application Analyst at UC Health shared, “They have an excellent customer service. If an issue comes up it is usually resolved in minutes. Emails are responded to, sometimes, I think, before I hit send. Seriously. Almost immediately.”
“Working with Zync has been great! They are solving for a unique problem that all health systems face. Our partnership together has been valuable from day 1”
– Jami Butcher, Revenue Cycle Support – UC Health