As healthcare organizations continue to grapple with ongoing staffing challenges and ever-present administrative workloads, decision-makers are being called upon to make strategic changes that can better balance patient care demands and the administrative complexity stemming from a diversifying payer market.
We have known for many years the impact that more paperwork has on clinicians and back office staff: more burnout, less satisfaction, and more time wrapped up in administrative work that seemingly does little to advance patient care standards.
As value-based payment models see increasing adoption by state and federal agencies and private payers, the importance of care quality is undeniable. However, the measures tied to quality—lower readmissions, better patient outcomes, better care coordination—present a challenge for providers and organizations already facing staffing issues and budgetary constraints.
This article outlines the important role that technology and remote specialists can play in providing vital patient care coordination improvements that alleviate workforce burdens and increase care quality.
Notable Stats:
- Administrative costs account for approximately 40% of care expenses
- Care denials are as high as 20% for commercial payers, 55% for Medicare Advantage plans
- Filling lower-wage support positions presents the greatest potential risk to staffing recovery
- A shortage of 100,000 critical care workers is projected by 2028.
Additional insights:
New AHA report highlights mounting financial challenges for hospitals
The Growing Need for Efficient Patient Care Coordination
Care coordination involves communication with interdisciplinary care teams, patients, and caregivers to ensure the flow of information and clarity among all parties.
Compassionate and careful care coordination is vital to care outcomes and overall well-being of all patients, but particularly so for individuals with complex care requirements, language, or literacy barriers. With thorough communication and coordination, there are fewer opportunities for siloed and fragmented care to occur, which is often associated with wasteful spending and errors (i.e., duplicated tests, misdiagnoses, and treatment delays).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has increasingly incentivized the adoption of value-based payment models that reward more cost-effective care. Key to lowering the cost of care is the reduction of readmissions and errors that cause complications (including administrative errors).
Engaging with patients and their families has been shown to improve health outcomes. According to the National Academy of Medicine, involving patients, caregivers, and families in decisions also improves patient satisfaction and reduces hospital readmissions.
While the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM), set to launch on January 1, 2026, is a novel approach that tests bundled payments for a large volume of surgeries, successful value-based operations leverage a strong network of quality partners and robust care coordination. The latter has been the key to success, but unlike smaller provider groups, pharmacies, or specialty practices, large health systems can afford to dedicate entire governing bodies to care coordination efforts.
10
Reduction in rehospitalizations among heart failure
patients with high levels of care coordination
Outsourced Teams Are Enabling Better Care Coordination
In response to the growing interest in, and data supporting, patient care coordination efforts in improving care outcomes, providers and patient-facing organizations are increasingly seeking the benefits of outsourcing patient care coordination.
81
Respondents who saw patient engagement as a
significant-to-moderate trend for health care organizations in 2025.
Hiring and training individuals to work in-house to coordinate patient care across multiple providers, payers, and other treatment specialists is a costly proposition. Rising wage demands coupled with fewer individuals available to perform this vital job creates a two-sided challenge for decision-makers.
Healthcare outsourcing services are becoming increasingly important for operations, allowing leaders to tap into a cost-effective and highly trained workforce that can carefully and compassionately bridge the gaps needed to enable thorough patient care coordination.
Benefits of Bilingual Care Coordination Staff
30
of Hispanic Americans prefer to see a
Spanish-speaking healthcare provider
When a bilingual or multilingual staff is used, care access also improves. With a sizable portion of the US favoring communication in their original language, bilingual staff are becoming more important in helping diverse patient populations understand their treatment and care journey. This is especially important as a growing population of individuals requires complex care.
The Correct Mix of Technology and Compassionate Communication
Beyond the savings associated with third-party outsourcing services, dedicated teams of tech-enabled remote specialists can manage a larger workload through economies of scale that alleviate administrative burdens for in-house staff and forego the startup costs of investing in more technology to support robust care coordination.
At Bluebird, for example, remote staff tasked with handling prior authorizations have reduced turnaround time from 36 hours to as low as 12 hours. This has had a significant impact on providers and their patients, reducing delays in treatment and introducing process improvements that enable future efficiency.
80
of executives plan to increase and sustain existing outsourcing initiatives
50
used outsourcing services for sales, marketing, and R&D
IT infrastructure is crucial to efficient patient care coordination. For small to midsize providers, outsourcing to tech-enabled, remote workforces with trained experts allows a seamless treatment journey for patients. Messaging between provider groups, specialty practices, caregivers, and patients can be handled entirely by dedicated teams, ensuring a steady, accurate flow of information that makes the work of clinicians easier and helps patients know they are being given due attention and care.
Bluebird’s Solution for Providers
With a goal of improving access to care and improving operations for healthcare providers, Bluebird helps decision-makers enhance patient care coordination. We pair organizations with hand-picked, trained experts to provide quality care coordination and back office support that meshes seamlessly with your existing technology and company culture.
Our bilingual staff, fluent in English and Spanish, become a natural extension of your organization, not an isolated solution to a single problem. With this approach, we ensure better outcomes for care coordination and many other essential business processes.
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Based in the United States and Latin America, Bluebird specializes in building fully bilingual, remote teams trained and tailored to meet a variety of healthcare and business needs.
