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When Lauree M. Miller, director of patient access at Catholic Health Initiatives Nebraska in Lincoln, became the organization's coordinator of admissions, patient access didn't have anyone represented on the hospital's committee that oversees accreditation by The Joint Commission.
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Although there is no way to know exactly what documents you will be asked to provide in the initial HIPAA compliance audit notice from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) there are some items you can expect to see on the list, according to experts interviewed by HIPAA Regulatory Alert:
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If you stick to one teaching style for all of your patient access staff, this process can result in poor morale, warns Tracy Abdalla, assistant manager of hospital access services at University of California -- Davis Medical Center Hospital.
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Below are examples of questions used to prepare registrars at Catholic Health Initiatives facilities in Nebraska for surveys by The Joint Commission:
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Take the time to provide training to provider offices about insurance guidelines and registration processes, because this training is a good way to encourage collaboration with patient access, recommends Kellie Hawkins, director of patient access for Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD.
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A well-prepared team that understands roles and responsibilities when a notice of a HIPAA compliance audit is received is essential for every organization and should be established long before a notice is received, suggests Chris Apgar, CISSP, president of Apgar & Associates, a Portland, OR-based consulting firm. Educate them about the purpose of the audit, and give each person specific responsibilities, he says.
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The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issue Notices of Proposed Rulemaking that are open for comment until May 7, 2012.
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Patient access leaders at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff, CA, are improving satisfaction by using feedback from newly created "transformational care" teams.
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Registrars at Sarasota (FL) Memorial Health Care System have gotten very good at calculating estimates manually, but the department is implementing a price estimation tool to make the job much easier, says Diane C. Settle, CPA, CHFP, executive director of revenue cycle.
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A new pre-arrival unit at University of Mississippi Health Care in Clinton has revamped the authorization process for services that are pending authorization, reports Sylvia Greer, MBA, associate director of revenue cycle management. The hospital has obtained $150 million in revenue for reimbursable services, she adds, many of which would have otherwise been denied by payers.
