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Four patient preprocessing benchmarks reported

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, April 16, 2004

A recent revenue-cycle benchmarking study published by Zimmerman & Associates, a Wisconsin-based consulting and research company, reported a slew of trends for hospital patient preprocessing.

The study surveyed 550 facilities of varying bed size around the country, and used 48 key performance indicators and 61 performance-driven indicators.

Among the results were four key aspects:

1. Large hospitals (350+ beds) are more likely to preregister scheduled patients. The study said this was most likely due to the fact that large hospitals have more staffing resources.

2. Small hospitals (0-100 beds) are least likely to perform insurance verification/eligibility prior to service. This was not surprising, the report said, because small hospitals are also less likely to use online verification of benefits.

3. Service refusal is taboo at most hospitals. The study found that service refusal for nonemergent cases is rare. Nationally, 7% of hospitals say their credit and collection policy has a process in place to refuse treatment to nonemergent elective cases.

4. Larger hospitals use central preaccess units. The central unit is for scheduling, preregistration, and financial counseling. Larger hospitals are more likely to have such a unit because the complexity of their operation requires expensive coordination, the report said.

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