The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued new guidance for providers on talking about patients' health information with and in the presence of other parties — with an emphasis on what can be discussed.
Despite increasing demand for privacy surrounding health information, North American hospitals lag behind European counterparts when it comes to one of the most visible impediments to privacy — multi-bed hospital rooms.
It can be a vicious cycle: Turnover causes undue stress to personnel due to staffing shortages, plus the added burden of bringing new personnel up to speed. This leads to more turnover.
Happier employees that's what Holly Hiryak, MNSc, RN, CHAM, director of hospital admissions/access services at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR, would like to see.
Automobile and accidental injury regulations, the Medicare as Secondary Payer questionnaire, and workers' compensation guidelines are just a few of the many issues with which the patient access professional and case manager must be educated and competent.
For many years, patient access was "the red-headed stepchild of the revenue cycle, straddling the fence between patient care and financials," says James Hicks, CHAA, CHAM, CAM, patient access manager at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton, NC.
New associates starting right out of school or from some other service industry bring limited or no knowledge of the health care industry to the table. They may or may not have well-developed computer skills. As for medical terminology, it's likely to be a foreign language to them.
An enterprise-wide master patient index is used at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, a system of six hospitals, several off-campus diagnostic and treatment centers, free-standing surgical centers, and urgent care centers.
If you're not collecting accurate, complete information in a "patient-centric" way, you're not maximizing either cash collection or patient satisfaction.
Michael S. Friedberg, FACHE, CHAM, director of patient access services at Apollo Health Street and author of Staff Competency in Patient Access, offers this nugget of truth about management: "If employees feel you'll do anything for them, they'll do anything for you, regardless of pay scale."
