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Hurting financially? Save the day with front-end revenue increases

Today's hospitals are facing an unprecedented revenue challenge, due to surges in uninsured patients and skyrocketing out-of-pocket responsibilities for the insured. In this challenging new fiscal environment, patient access will play a starring role.

Triple POS collections using this approach

Carmen Arroyo, clinic operations manager of cardiology, nephrology, and pulmonary medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, set a goal to increase her area's time-of-service collections by 9% over the previous fiscal year. She wound up tripling the amount collected. Here is how she did it:

Cut hospital losses with upfront injection of cash

John E. Kivimaki, director of patient accounts at Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine, OH, was asked by his CFO to identify areas in the revenue cycle where losses could be reduced by focusing on upfront efforts.

This proposal could reduce significant losses in revenue cycle

The below proposal was submitted by John E. Kivimaki, director of patient accounts at Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine, OH, to identify areas in the revenue cycle where losses could be reduced by focusing on upfront efforts. It was accepted by the hospital's administration, and implementation is underway.

Accuracy may be key to revenue increases

If registrars are more accurate when completing registrations, fewer claims denials will result. This clearly improves your hospital's fiscal situation, but remains a daunting challenge for many patient access departments. Here are some steps taken by the patient access department at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, NY:

Now is the time to improve your financial counseling

More than ever, patient access staff are being challenged to step into a new role that of financial counselor. Patients have more complex questions and needs, and are turning to front-line staff for answers.

Set self-pay patients up on a payment plan

Here is a payment planÿ

Set self-pay patients up on a payment plan

Here is a payment plan matrix for self-pay patients used by patient access staff at Skaggs Regional Medical Center in Branson, MO.

Quality assurance audits may be too subjective

Registration accuracy is always a foremost concern for patient access leaders, as problems in this area can lead to needless claims denials; ineffective quality assurance audits, however, won't get results, says Diane E. Mastalski, CHAA, CHAM, Virtua's corporate director of patient access.

Tackle the toughest POS collection areas

Point-of-service collections are becoming increasingly important for patient access areas for many reasons, but this revenue doesn't come easily.

2010 Salary Survey Results

Hospital Access Management – January 1, 2011

January 1, 2011