A shipshape MPI will help avert mix-ups
Continual updates of your outpatient master patient index (MPI) will help you get the best reimbursement from the contracts you have for hospital and outpatient clinic services, experts say. And if your organization doesn’t keep an updated directory of patients’ names and medical record numbers, it should.
Managed care organizations are getting stricter about provider contracts. Health plans are also scrutinizing outpatient claims more closely.
Creating an MPI is not difficult, but keeping the list accurate and up to date requires constant vigilance and troubleshooting. Daily MPI reviews should include:
•Analyzing the previous day’s registrations
•Cross-checking the data against the MPI, which should also list patient medical record numbers and dates of previous service. Similarities in name-spelling should also be checked routinely to avoid duplication.
•Other essential information the MPI should contain include the patient’s age, gender, address, birth date, marital status, and maiden name. Some indexes also include a separate identifier, such as the patient’s Social Security number, along with diagnosis information and nicknames anything that can offer a unique identifier.
MPIs are also important because of the growing network of integrated providers. MPIs form the basis for larger patient identifiers called enterprise patient identifiers (EPIs). EPIs electronically link networks of separate, sometimes unrelated providers in different locations with a master patient directory.
With all that information electronically filed, errors can creep in during registration or when patients intentionally give incorrect information to avoid paying old health care bills, unless MPIs are carefully monitored.
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