Situation
In Florida’s highly competitive healthcare landscape, Baptist Health Care has built a reputation for delivering exceptional care across multiple hospitals and outpatient centers. Still, Baptist wasn’t immune to the administrative challenges that can erode patient satisfaction. Manual, time-consuming prior authorization workflows created delays, caused last-minute rescheduling, and introduced unnecessary friction for both patients and referring providers. Similarly, paperwork and repeated payer follow-ups drained valuable staff time, creating bottlenecks that slowed scheduling and risked delaying care. Each disruption also had the potential to erode patient confidence while straining provider relationships and undermining Baptist’s reputation for service excellence. Baptist recognized that modernization was essential.
Solution
Baptist partnered with R1 to implement the R1 Prior Authorization solution. Prior Authorization is a key part of Phare Access, which is a modern technology that unifies order management, scheduling, clearance and payment into one seamless patient access experience.
With the solution in place, digital orders now trigger automated workflows immediately.
It creates a seamless, proactive model:
- Digital orders launch workflows instantly. No waiting for manual intervention.
- Authorizations are automated. Rules-based logic kicks in as soon as an order is received.
- Administrative burdens are reduced. Staff members spend less time chasing approvals and more time focusing on patients.
- Scheduling is accelerated. Appointments move to “schedule-ready” faster, eliminating bottlenecks and delays.
- Future orders are managed proactively. Authorizations can be secured up to 30 days in advance, ensuring patients arrive with clear approvals in place.
Results
By centralizing, standardizing and automating prior authorizations, Baptist realized measurable gains across the revenue cycle, scheduling and provider engagement. High-value outcomes include:
Revenue Cycle and Access
- 93.5% of authorizations are completed within one working day. Before R1, they took five to seven days.
- 99.4% of authorizations are cleared within three days.
- Authorization-related reschedules have been cut to minimal levels, reaching just 18% at one campus in a recent week.
- Future orders can be authorized up to 30 days in advance, reducing last-minute surprises.
Scheduling Efficiency
- Appointment volume nearly doubled from approximately 8,000 to 15,000, without adding more staff.
- 94% of patients reported a positive scheduling experience.
- Rules-based, cross-location scheduling gives patients more convenient choices across the network.
Stronger Provider Alignment
- 77% of providers now submit electronic orders, which is far above industry averages.
- Expanded collaboration with independent providers increased referrals and reduced revenue leakage.
- Improved alignment with employed providers streamlined workflows and accelerated access.
“We have minimal reschedules due to lack of authorization now,” Purvis explained. “The other point that comes to my mind is that the authorization workflow is able to hold future orders and obtain authorization 30 days prior to ordered service. Thus allowing future orders to be segregated and authorized appropriately based on need.”
By modernizing prior authorization with R1, Baptist is now better positioned to build on its momentum and drive even greater success in the years ahead.
Tangible Outcomes at a Glance
93.5%
of authorizations clear in 1 day
99.4%
clear within 3 days
51%
reduction in reschedules
17%
productivity boost for schedulers
94%
patient satisfaction with scheduling
