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Aligning with the health care customer service model of the Studer Group whose Road Map to Excellence is guided by five pillars: service, quality, people, finance, and growth was a natural fit for Providence Health System, says Patricia Weygandt, manager of access services at Providence Milwaukie (OR), one of three system hospitals in the Portland area.
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Several key innovations contributed to the success of the Wipe Out Waiting (WOW) initiative in the emergency department (ED) of Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, CA, part of the Adventist Health System.
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University of Michigan (UM) researchers said at the annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology held March 7-10 in New Orleans that HIPAA has significantly affected their ability to study heart attack patients after they are discharged from the hospital.
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The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), which advises the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on issues related to administrative simplification under HIPAA, says the agency should show continued patience as covered entities continue to make progress in implementation of the HIPAA transactions and code sets (TCS) requirements.
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When access personnel at the University Hospital of Arkansas in Little Rock decided they would benefit from having their own resource web site, they sent the proposal to the information technology (IT) department, says Holly Jones, CHAM, a revenue integrity specialist (RIS) given the task of overseeing the project.
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An all-employee guest-relations program at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago aims to increase both the hospitals market share and its Press Ganey Associates patient satisfaction scores.
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At least two state legislatures have taken action in recent weeks regarding free or discounted health care services for uninsured patients, according to reports in the on-line news service, AHA News Now.
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As part of the financial aid program at the New Orleans-based Touro Infirmary, there is a clinic for uninsured or underinsured patients, says Beth Keith, CHAM, director of patient business services.
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In response to suggestions that two laws enforced by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may prevent hospitals from offering discounted prices to uninsured patients. The OIG discusses each law on its web site, www.oig.hhs.gov, as follows.
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Encouragement from the Bush administration for hospitals to give discounts to uninsured patients and financially needy Medicare beneficiaries will have little impact, say some access professionals surveyed by Hospital Access Management, mostly because hospitals already give such discounts under the name of charity care and uncollectible bad debt.
