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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.
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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.
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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.
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Point-of-service collections are becoming increasingly important for patient access areas for many reasons, but this revenue doesn't come easily.
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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:
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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:
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Here is a payment planÿ
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Here is a payment plan matrix for self-pay patients used by patient access staff at Skaggs Regional Medical Center in Branson, MO.
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The nurse had worked almost 17 hours in an "intense double shift" and slept less than six hours before starting her third shift, according to the Risky Business web site.
