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It's unlikely that many patient access professionals are seeing huge raises these days. "With the economy as it's been, I would imagine increases are minimal and folks are scrambling to hold on to their jobs," says Peter Kraus, CHAM, CPAR, a business analyst with patient financial services at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
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Heidi Dunbar, manager of admitting/emergency department coordinator at Seattle Children's Hospital, says that although it's often very hard to find time for them, monthly staff meetings are always worth the time they take. "About 90% of staff come to meetings, which means they are getting something out of them," she says. "We have a very open environment, and people always have interesting things to say that you would never imagine."
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More than ever, patient access staff are coping with angry and frustrated patients.
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Registration staff were too careless to get accurate insurance information. A patient access employee was mean to a patient. Wait times at registration were ridiculously long because staff are incompetent. The list goes on and on. Too often, patient access bears the brunt of negative feedback from other areas of the hospital.
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Does an individual have flawless references and impressive skills? That doesn't matter much if his or her service skills are lacking.
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The Medicare Secondary Payer questionnaire is not complete. The Medicare number is missing from a replacement plan. The subscriber name or date of birth is a mismatch. An account has incorrect insurance coded for third-party liability.
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Is your patient access staff familiar with federal requirements for giving patients information on how to file complaints or grievances?
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You might receive a citation from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration if you fail to assess respiratory hazards related to 2009 H1N1, don't use various methods to reduce employee exposure or fail to consider respirators other than N95s when there is a shortage.
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Finally, there's some relief in sight from the frustrations of fit-testing N95 respirators. Manufacturers will be required to make respirators that fit most people well under a rule proposed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
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Three infection control organizations the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology have written President Barack Obama, requesting an immediate moratorium on OSHA enforcement of the use of N95 respirators in relation to novel H1N1.
