Hospital Access Management – May 1, 2016
May 1, 2016
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Are clinicians rude to registrars? Morale, patient satisfaction at stake
A registrar is finishing up entering an emergency department patient’s demographic information. Suddenly, a clinician enters the room, closes out the registration screen without saying a word to the registrar, and begins talking to the patient as though the registrar isn’t present.
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ED registration time cut from 30 minutes to 15
Emergency department registrars cut average registration times from 30 minutes to 15 minutes at Irvine, CA-based St. Joseph Health. In addition, the admission financial clearance process is completed, on average, in just 15 minutes. -
Is applicant a good fit for the department? Ask his or her future colleagues
An employee satisfaction survey revealed that some patient access employees at Orlando-based Arnold Palmer Medical Center thought that their skills were not a good match for their position.
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Look for these qualities in access applicants
Two recent patient access hires at Wilmington, DE-based Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children quickly advanced in the department, and both obtained certified healthcare access manager certification. At first glance, though, the applicants didn’t appear to have the desired skill set.
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Want new hires to have a valuable resource? Give them an ‘associate friend’
About 70% of patient access training at Jacksonville, FL-based Baptist Health now takes place on the job, instead of in a classroom.
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Educators correct ‘bad habits’ during evaluations
New patient access hires are trained at Birmingham-based Children’s of Alabama in the following ways: -
Momentum is critical with point-of-service collections
In 2015, patient access leaders at Peoria, IL-based OSF Healthcare determined that $3 million in cash was going uncollected each year. At the time, patient access collected only copays and didn’t ask for outstanding balances.
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Patients, staff face challenges with POS collections
Before patient access leaders at Peoria, IL-based OSF Healthcare implemented a new point-of-service collection initiative, patients were asked for their opinion.
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$6,000 saved by cross-training patient access staff
Patient access coordinator Erica Escobar recently justified the need for two new insurance verification positions at Chicago-based Norwegian American Hospital. She pointed to a recent change: The shift from Medicare and/or Medicaid insurance, to Medicare and/or Medicaid managed care organization plans.
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Petition supports a renewed dialogue on voluntary patient safety identifier
The National Association for Healthcare Access Management has called for support for the following petition, which, at press time, was pending with the White House. -
Don’t forget that small HIPAA violations can cause big problems for hospitals
The large data breaches that compromise the protected health information of thousands of people are the ones that receive all the attention, but the smaller violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act can be just as harmful, if not more so, to those involved.
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Decision on Lincare civil penalties should be a reminder of liability potential
The latest development in a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act breach investigation should serve as a reminder that fines are not the only way the government can punish a healthcare institution for failing to protect patient information. Civil penalties are possible, and the courts are upholding their legality.
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OCR: Facilities need organization-wide risk analysis
The University of Washington Medicine in Seattle has agreed to settle charges that it potentially violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by failing to implement policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations.