Sixty-seven percent of healthcare system leaders are “very or extremely” concerned about Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement impacts and potential disruption to hospital operations, with 61% expecting reimbursement cuts in the next 12 to 18 months, a new survey from Retarus found.
The report drew insights from 103 U.S. healthcare and health insurance professionals surveyed online from mid-January to early February, in partnership with Researchscape.
If potential reimbursement cuts exceed 10%, nearly one-third of respondents say it will have a “very negative impact” on staffing decisions and 33% expect the same of technological investments. Moreover, 43% of respondents report that patients would be the most likely to absorb the costs of reimbursement changes.
“Document workflows are one area where risk surfaces quickly,” the report said. “Healthcare organizations move large volumes of documentation every day—referrals, clinical records, authorization materials, discharge summaries. When those documents don’t move reliably between systems, delays follow. Staff step in to resolve the issue, and the process slows.”
The report noted policy changes are affecting administrative work at hospitals, including a proposed phaseout of fax machines and paper mailings. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said more than a quarter of communications rely on legacy fax, alongside 24% who report legacy fax accounting for up to half of communications, and 15% who report it accounting for more than half.
Sixty-four percent of respondents report spending up to 10 hours each week managing fax-related tasks, and 81% report spending five hours or more weekly on such tasks. Respondents were asked how much staff burnout is attributed to manual communication workflows, with 76% reporting related burnout.
The report also examined where organizations are directing modernization efforts. Four key efforts were identified: artificial intelligence or machine learning for data extraction (39%); intelligent document processing platforms (38%); digital cloud or fax modernization (37%) and secure transactional email (32%).
"Historically, data and document infrastructure has been considered a back-office technology," said Martin Hager, founder and CEO of Retarus, in a statement. "The numbers paint a clear picture: its role has changed. Reliable, integrated, and automated communication is now essential to maintain clinical operations, protect revenue, and support healthcare staff. The modern healthcare environment requires cutting-edge platforms that boost transparency and resilience without introducing unnecessary complexity."