• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Benchmarking study reveals patient preprocessing best practices

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, March 26, 2004

Top-performing hospitals have solid preregistration programs in place, according Zimmerman & Associates' 2004 Revenue Cycle Benchmarking Report, which was released this month.

The report showed that 74% of best-performing facilities had such a program, compared to the national average of 48%.

The study surveyed 550 facilities of varying bed size around the country, and used 48 key performance indicators and 61 performance-driven indicators, says Bruce Nelson, executive vice president at Zimmerman.

Seven major practices in the patient preprocessing section - which is one of 11 revenue-cycle areas analyzed in the report - revealed the following about top-performing facilities:

1. They are five times more likely to give a full explanation to patients than poor-performing organizations

2. Financial counseling integrated into the preregistration process is more than two times more common than with poor performers

3. By three to one, they are more likely to have a centralized preaccess unit than poor performers

4. 21% have a policy in place to refuse service based on a comprehensive credit and collection policy

5. They have regular performance-auditing processes in place to monitor registration effectiveness

6. Two-thirds have productivity standards in place that are communicated to the staff

7. 79% value both formal and informal staff training

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive