Insurance updates, access alerts’ included
A web page for registration training and support for Aurora Health Care’s metro region is providing a wealth of information for access personnel and drawing praise not just from the Milwaukee-based facilities it targets, but throughout the Aurora network.
Up and running since the first quarter of 2003, the web page is heavy on insurance updates and instruction, archives the department’s bimonthly newsletter, gives the schedule for orientation and training, and provides "Access Alerts" on topics of immediate interest to staff, among other offerings, says Sue Underbrink, CHAM, supervisor of metro patient access training and data quality.
"Interpreter services are also under [the access department], so we have added that to our web page," adds Underbrink, who operates the site with a staff of two training specialists. "[It tells] how to contact someone to be an interpreter for a patient. That doesn’t happen every day, so it means [the employee] doesn’t have to flip through a folder somewhere to get the information."
With the oversight of Aurora’s chief privacy officer, she notes, the training and data quality staff prepared and posted on the web page Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guidelines written specifically for access personnel. Collaborating with the business office, Underbrink and staff developed guidelines that provide specifics about various insurance companies. "These are the little things that everybody needs to know about, say, Blue Cross, but maybe you don’t need them every day," she says. "[Insurance company names] are alphabetized, so [staff] just click on them when they think, I know there’s something about this that I need to remember.’"
Her department also puts out an insurance update called "Insurance Monthly" that is distributed through the web page and via e-mail. "This includes a monthly report from the business office on trends they’ve noticed, as well as our own upfront audit," Underbrink notes.
Five representatives from metro region patient access, three from the combined business office, and one from managed care contracting — who form the Insurance Quality and Standards Team — sit down with her department on a monthly basis to review information and come to a consensus on what should be included in Insurance Monthly, she adds.
Insurance cards that are difficult to interpret are sometimes posted on the web page, Underbrink says. "We have an insurance card reference guide, with examples of cards from various insurance plans scanned into the system. We point out on each card what people need to look for so they can choose the correct plan."
Updating the web page is "a big chunk of the job" for one of the training specialists, says Underbrink. "She is constantly getting information on new insurance cards, putting images of them on the web site, and pointing out that this is the group name, this is the group number,’ and telling them what plan to choose from the list in the registration system."
Although the web page is aimed at metro region staff, she says, "other regions use it all through the eastern section of Wisconsin. We have a feedback section that is a mechanism for anyone who utilizes our web page to ask questions, offer suggestions, or register for our classes. It gets responses from all the regions."
Collaborating with other departments
One of the pluses of putting together and maintaining the web site, Underbrink notes, has been the opportunity to collaborate with other departments, including the business office and managed care contracting. "We’ve learned a lot; they’ve learned a lot; and we work well together," she says. That cooperation extends to the quarterly workshops developed and presented by Underbrink and her staff. The insurance quality and standards team generates topics for the sessions. "We’ve done a Medicare Secondary Payer workshop, another on troublesome insurance cards, and one called Insurance 101," Underbrink adds.
The insurance quality and standards team also is the governing body that determines if a new insurance plan should be created, she says. "All insurance questions and concerns from business office and patient access staff are filtered through this group for answers and resolutions."
Although the training and data quality staff are responsible for the bimonthly access newsletter, she says, "we don’t write it all." It’s a departmental expectation, she explains, that access leads and frontline staff also contribute to the publication, which runs 12-14 pages. That newsletter is archived on the web site.
Underbrink and her staff also perform quality audits of employees who perform registrations, auditing a portion of the work of 120 people each month. "We look at how they perform, how the group they are part of performs, and compare that against the other hospitals in the region." In addition, she notes, her staff calculates the employees’ average quality scores to date, which are used in preparing annual evaluations.
(Editor’s note: Look for a description of the "competency fair" put on by Aurora Health Care’s training and data quality staff in the next issue of Hospital Access Management. Sue Underbrink can be reached at [email protected].)
A web page for registration training and support for Aurora Health Cares metro region is providing a wealth of information for access personnel and drawing praise not just from the Milwaukee-based facilities it targets, but throughout the Aurora network.
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