HCPro.com: Patient Access Advisor

Here's a resource for directors and managers of patient financial services (PFS) to help them capitalize on revenue opportunities and improve the bottom line; every issue is filled with training tools and resources including sample policies, forms, and worksheets to institute improvements in the department, reduce denied claims, improve front-end processes, and track government and private payer rules.

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March 2008 (Volume 5, Issue 3)	view entire issue

Get your suit on
In the world of patient access, it matters what you wear. You are the front line, the first impression for a facility, the image. Some industry professionals who have made the move to require access staff to look professional and dress uniformly are reaping the benefits. Uniforms, access managers say, can improve a sense of unity among staff members, make them more identifiable to patients, and ultimately, make them feel-and look-more professional. What does that mean for the access manager? The turnover rate decreases, and so do the manager's headaches.

Just pay them
Jeff Karns spent years dealing with a high turnover rate in the patient access department at the Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD. Access staff members have one of the most important functions in the hospital, Karns says. He spends a large part of his time thinking of ways to improve their jobs. "They realize they're managing the patients, their whole experience in the hospital," says Karns, who as patient financial services director manages the facility's patient access manager. "Most of our patient access staff, what they really enjoy is getting out from behind that desk and enjoying that freedom of helping patients. These are patient-first type of people. Having that authority to decide that 'it's okay for me to walk out from behind that desk and take this person where they need to go'-they like that."

Inquiring minds want to know
Patient access managers measuring registration accuracy rates will not find all the answers right away. They will have questions, though. And questions are a good thing-as long as there are solutions. That is the theory of Michael S. Friedberg, FACHE, CHAM, of Armanti Financial Services in Bloomfield, NJ. Friedberg, a former access manager, says the "accuracy rates will provide you with the questions to ask but not the solutions to the problem. I know there's a problem. I have no idea what the solution is. It says to me I need to look at it. It allows you to develop the right questions to ask to solve the problem.

Centralized or decentralized?
It depends on what works best for your facility Patients who come to a hospital for treatment are not asking for much. They want to feel better, and they do not want to wait long. Being responsive to the latter falls on the shoulders of patient access managers and staff members. And those staffs with decentralized registration have the upper hand over those in a centralized area. Wait times are shorter in decentralized. After all, if you're there for a laboratory test, and you're at laboratory registration, the process is expedited.

Training tool: Sample error percentage and volume form


Job description and performance evaluation

Other recently-published articles from Patient Access Advisor:

This Month’s Form

Training tool: Scripting tool

Keller named to PAA advisory board

Tip of the month: Create a managed care plan matrix

Solidify your ED copayment collection policy

Copayments could be reduced under OPPS proposed rule

Make the most of your assessment

Facts about recovery audit contractors

Now is the time to prepare for the RAC program

Training tool: Registration assessment test

PAA names Albany access manager to advisory board

Six tips for quality control auditing

Show, don’t tell

Assess your registration processes

Four days and off you go

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