Hospital Access Management 2013-02-01

Stop losing out on revenue: ID costly gaps in POS collections

Even if your registrars have expertise and comfort with collecting, there are probably missed opportunities for point-of-service (POS) collections that add up to a lot of missed revenue.

Ask your patients about collection efforts

Before a patient liability estimator tool was implemented at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, a focus group of patients offered some valuable opinions.

Department achieves $1.5 million increase

During the first year of a three-year project to increase point-of-service (POS) collections at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, patient access leaders set and reached a goal of increasing pre-service collections for scheduled inpatients and outpatient surgeries to $2 million, starting from a baseline of $500,000 a year.

Give staff ability to help with coverage

Ensuring all patients have access to affordable health insurance is one of our top priorities, says Irma Becker, manager of patient access at Phoenix (AZ) Childrens Hospital/Phoenix Childrens Medical Group.

Goal is to identify payer source for self-pay

Your patient access employees probably are accustomed to fielding questions from patients about insurance coverage, but what about helping uninsured patients obtain coverage?

Your registrars soon will be telecommuting

Would you consider having some of your registrars work from home? Some organizations are successfully doing this, reports Keith Weatherman, CAM, MHA, associate director of service excellence for the corporate revenue cycle at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, NC.

Patients surveyed post-discharge

The patient access department has been the facilitator of discharge calls to emergency department (ED) patients for several years, and customer service has improved dramatically as a result, reports Cynthia Norman-Bey, director of patient access services and the Private Branch Exchange Call Center at Glendale (CA) Adventist Medical Center.

Do you know what access staff really want?

Would you be surprised to learn that what your staff members really want is to be given the opportunity to do additional tasks outside their normal work responsibilities?

Patients can give you service advice

Some patients were frustrated because they had to provide similar documentation to two departments at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, reports Desember Brucker, manager of ambulatory registration services.

More than expected opt for health exchanges

An important state health insurance exchange (HIX) deadline has come and gone, and it seems that more states will be opting for the federal option than experts originally thought.

Ensuring identification for patients online

Although patient identification has long been an issue within the hospital community, a new push in the conversion to electronic health records (EHRs) has added new challenges and solutions, according to the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM), which references an article in Government Health IT.

Creativity helps limit Medicare readmissions

Since October, Medicare has been calculating the number of Medicare patients readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of their discharge.

Joint Commission releases 2013 survey

The Joint Commission has released its 2013 Survey Activity Guide for Health Care Organizations.

EHRs might turn small errors into big ones

A new review of electronic health records (EHRs) by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority found that mistakes made in EHRs can be farther reaching than errors using traditional paper records, according to the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM), referring to a story in MedPage Today.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Physician texting poses HITECH security challenges

With almost 80% of cell phone owners reporting they use text messaging,1 it is no surprise that physicians are doing the same.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: BYOD policies address personal issues

Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are everywhere. The convenience of mobile devices has made healthcare documentation, follow up, and communication simpler and faster.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Website provides tips on mobile device security

Healthcare providers can find free tips and information about the secure use of mobile devices at a new website launched by the Department of Health and Human Services.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Guidelines address data de-identification

The increasing use of electronic health records, digital imaging, and automated registration systems has created large, complex data sets that can be used by researchers for the development of chronic disease programs, clinical guidelines, and new treatment protocols.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Development underway for Stage 3 rules

Almost $8 billion in meaningful incentives has been paid to 82,535 eligible providers and 1,474 hospitals for Stage 1 compliance, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Hospice pays $50,000 settlement

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has issues its first fine of a small organization with a breach of fewer than 500 patient records.

Hospital Access Management – February 1, 2013

February 1, 2013