3 Ways To Immediately Tighten Your Patient Access Workflow

Patient access mistakes cost hospitals millions of dollars per year. If your facility is like most, you can't afford to let money slip through the cracks.

Making sure accurate patient data goes into your patient accounting system is easier said than done. There’s no foolproof method, but these 3 best practices will go a long way toward ensuring data is accurate and streamlined for reimbursement.

1. Centralize Patient Scheduling. You’d be surprised how many facilities don’t have a system-wide application to coordinate patient scheduling or improve collection of required data. If your hospital lacks a reliable solution, don’t waste any more time. After all, time is money, and using a decentralized, manual or paper-based scheduling system is like pouring cash down the drain.
2. Prepare as Much as Possible Ahead of Time. This will give your team ample time to validate data, confirm medical necessity and secure any necessary authorizations before the patient ever steps through your hospital doors.
3. Collect Upfront Payments. Upfront collections are critical to your hospital’s fiscal health, and it’s imperative to have customer-focused processes and goals in place for your patient registration staff. Some teams even incentivized to obtain upfront co-pay, deductible and coinsurance collection goals!

Even though there really is no silver bullet for the perfect patient access solution. There are however precautions you can take to protect the integrity of the information going through your revenue cycle. These three steps are a good start, but find out more by visiting MEDHOST booth 218 at ANI 2014.

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