Boot camp’ for access runs the gamut of skills
The comprehensive training for access services staff at ScrippsHealth in San Diego includes a "boot camp" for new employees and a core competency program that builds in motivational achievement. The boot camp, a two-week program first held in January 2000, covers everything from techniques for upfront collections — a focus of Scripps’ new point-of-service (POS) program — to insurance information, to a crash course in how the health system works, says Dan Kehl, director of collections and customer service.
Using the POS training techniques, explains Mollie Drake, MBA, access director, staff learn how to:
• make the patient aware there is a financial obligation;
• help the patient understand how the amount was determined;
• figure out the easiest way to pay;
• counter any objections to payment.
"If the patient has a fairly high out-of-pocket expense, we want to let them know before and give them the opportunity to set up payments, she says. "The terms we’re requesting are less lenient than those for credit cards, but then, we’re not charging interest."
If patients request payment terms that are outside the norm, they are asked to complete a patient financial assessment form that allows Scripps to do more sophisticated financial counseling, Drake adds. (See form, p. 29.) "If we find out they’re sending $300 to the cable company, for example, we might suggest they could cancel HBO for six months," she says.
Class just one in a series
The POS class is one of 24 courses in access level one training, which is required for all access employees, Drake says. Scripps offers a self-study workbook for each course to accommodate employees who aren’t able to attend the classes or prefer to work on their own.
An access level two class covers the art of self-pay negotiation. "If access representatives are not confident how an HMO or a PPO works, they won’t be comfortable talking to the patient," Drake points out. "If the staff feel confident, it will come across in the conversation. If they start wavering, the patient will lose confidence in how we’ve come up with [the amount to be paid]."
The courses are part of a "Career Paths" program, introduced in December 1999, that allows access representatives to achieve upward mobility based on their own training and initiative, she explains. After access level one training, with demonstration of each additional competency level, employees can be promoted one salary grade and receive a 5% increase in pay in addition to any merit increase, Drake says.
The curriculum includes different classes for all three levels, plus a few — customer service and Medicare compliance, for example — that continue through all levels, she adds.
(Editor’s note: Look for a complete discussion of ScrippsHealth’s Career Paths program in the next issue of Hospital Access Management.)
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