Having started out in an entry-level position in patient access helps Kim Rice, director of patient access at Redding, CA-based Shasta Regional Medical Center, to advocate for her staff.
“I know what they face in their roles and can be their voice,” she says.
Rice advanced from a clerk to a manager and then to a director. Her first step was to go back to college and obtain an associate’s and bachelor’s degree in health and human services. “I am currently finishing a graduate program to obtain a master’s in health administration at the University of Phoenix,” she reports.
Having patient access and business office experience helped Rice to advance. “Understanding the revenue cycle and the departments involved allows me to recognize the importance of each of these areas,” she says.
See “the bigger picture”
Kaylyn Lambert, a patient access manager at OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, IL, constantly asked for more responsibilities to obtain her current position.
“On-the-job learning is crucial to move up within the revenue cycle and patient access fields,” she emphasizes.
Rice recommends participating on your hospital’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) committee. “Patient access staff work in an area that has high potential for HIPAA violations,” she explains. “Staff collect patient demographic and insurance information that has room for errors to take place.”
Molly Hinderliter, CHAA, a supervisor in patient financial navigation at Indiana University Health West Hospital in Indianapolis, began her patient access career as a temp. “From day one, I expressed interest in a leadership position,” she says. “At my 30-day review, I asked what I could do to develop myself to be ready for an opportunity when it presented itself.”
Hinderliter’s manager challenged her to become an expert in her area and to learn as much as she possibly could. “They kept asking for volunteers, and I kept signing up,” she says. “They gave me tasks that brought me out of my comfort zone and helped me grow as a team member.”
Hinderliter interviewed for supervisory positions three times unsuccessfully, but she was undaunted. Each time, she asked for feedback on how she could do better. “It was a matter of getting more experience overall,” she says. “I reached out for opportunities to do more things.”
Hinderliter represented her department at hospitalwide Ebola preparedness training events. “I was also asked to sit in once every two weeks on our ‘report out’ that is done for our registration numbers,” she says. “This enabled me to see the bigger picture.”
Hinderliter peppered the meeting’s presenter with questions on registration so she could fully understand how the process worked. Soon after, she obtained her certified healthcare access associate (CHAA) credential. “I knew this would force me to learn as much as possible about registration and be an asset to the team,” she says. (For more information on CHAA certification, see “12 registrars in this system CHAA-certified each year,” Hospital Access Management, June 2013.)
Teri Cheeks-Rice, CHAM, performance coordinator of the revenue cycle education department at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, started out as a registrar, advanced to a supervisor, and transitioned into an educator. She is now the National Association of Healthcare Access Management’s education chair. “I have been in the patient access field for my entire adult life,” she says.
Cheeks-Rice credits her success in large part to a mentor who was passionate about patient access. “She made sure that we never felt as if we were ‘just registrars,’” she says. “She worked hard to ensure our understanding of the revenue cycle and the role we played.”
Cheeks-Rice says employees should “get involved in all things patient access.” Here are her recommendations:
- Subscribe to area insurance emails, such as local Medicaid alerts.
“Patients expect that a registrar knows everything about the insurance card they present,” says Cheeks-Rice.
- Get involved in your department’s denial reviews.
“Find out what causes a denial, and educate others,” says Cheeks-Rice. “This helps others with their accuracy rate, as well as reducing denials for your organization.” For example, registrars can alert peers if a local Medicaid plan denied a claim because the patient had another health plan that should have been the primary.
- Take part in preparing for National Healthcare Access Personnel week.
“Sign up to help organize some of the weeklong festivities for your department,” suggests Cheeks-Rice. (NAHAM’s Access Week toolkit is available at http://bit.ly/1fs39UJ. For more information, see “Healthcare Access Personnel Week offers opportunity to celebrate with your staff,” Hospital Access Management, April 2015.)
- Spend time shadowing staff members in health information management and patient financial services.
“See how the revenue cycle works, how patient access affects everything they do, and where your role as a registrar fits in,” says Cheeks-Rice. (See related story on networking in patient access, in this issue.)
SOURCES
- Teri Cheeks-Rice, CHAM, Performance Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Services, Indiana University Health, Indianapolis. Phone: (317) 962-4211. Email: [email protected].
- Molly Hinderliter, CHAA, Patient Financial Navigation, Indiana University Health West Hospital, Indianapolis. Phone: (317) 832-3016. Email: [email protected].
- Kaylyn Lambert, Patient Access Manager, Revenue Cycle, OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, Ottawa, IL. Phone: (815) 431-5482. Email: [email protected].
- Kim Rice, Director of Patient Access and Communications, Shasta Regional Medical Center, Redding, CA. Phone: (530) 229-2944. Email: [email protected].
