All Entries in the "Latest News" Category
FRESH LOOK: HCPro, Inc. launches new logo and tagline as part of its new corporate branding initiative
HCPro, Inc. is launching a new corporate branding campaign designed to reflect the company's focus on the future and strengthen its dedication to providing quality products and services that meet the needs of healthcare professionals.
The new brand identity involves changes to the company's logo and a new tagline: "Insight for Healthcare Compliance and Management." The new logo keeps HCPro's familiar black and red colors, but includes a more contemporary font and progressive design.
The initiative will unify the HCPro brand across all products, platforms and services. Over the next few months, the logo will be placed on company communications, displays, and web sites, including the company's ecommerce site, HCPro's Healthcare Marketplace (www.hcmarketplace.com), which is scheduled to be redesigned in April.
PARC FEATURE STORY: People skills first
Accuracy, production take a backseat to a smile and a good impression
Accomplishing registration accuracy, check. Understanding how to deliver an advance beneficiary notice, check. Handling a phone call from a patient, check.
A patient access representative needs to be competent at performing all of the above.
The burden to train representatives falls on the access manager. When representatives fail to meet expectations, the access manager must take the time to revisit training.
But can good customer service skills be taught, or are some people naturally inclined to communicate effectively with others?
Although the debate about whether these skills are learned or innate continues, there is no debate about the importance of patient access representatives possessing customer service skills. And there is certainly no denying the importance of people skills in a children's hospital.
Nervous parents with sick children need access representatives who are calm and comfortable.
Access managers say the person behind the admitting or registration desk must remain calm, understanding, and focused no matter what is thrown his or her way.
Look for people skills
"The biggest thing we look for is good customer service," said Jo Ann Tomes, manager of admitting at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "When I interview somebody, I'll look for somebody who has a strong handshake and is up and bubbly. People are nervous when they go through an interview. You can tell if people are good with other people. You can teach people anything, but it's difficult to teach them to be nice. I don't care how much customer service you have; it's difficult to teach customer service."
Once candidates are invited to come for an interview, Tomes says she looks at everything from their extracurricular activities to what they do with family and friends.
"A lot of times, we have students as applicants," says Tomes. "We get college students, and we watch to see how outgoing they appear. If they answer me with one word, I have a concern with their ability to interact."
Cincinnati's training process begins with a hospital orientation and three days in the admitting department to talk about registration. Trainers from the billing side and registration help.
Next, new representatives go to a training center for four days, where they set up their computers and get used to the system. "That's the best part-they can actually [use computers and learn the system]," says Tomes.
The representatives then go through a few more weeks of training with the admitting staff before they go live on the floor. There are also ongoing programs available within the organization to help improve their skills.
Then the first big test comes. How will the representatives handle tense situations involving sick children?
One of the most important things, Tomes says, is to stay calm.
"That's probably one of the things we emphasize during their training," Tomes says. "If you get apprehensive, nervous, and upset, then you're going to upset the family. You have to keep in mind you're trying to calm them down. You do what you have to do and get them where they need to go. Just make sure they're comfortable with you. You just have to know [good customer service]."
Make the job fun
At Phoenix (AZ) Children's Hospital, part of the training process involves teaming up with a buddy or mentor.
Learning how to register is one thing, but the buddy system seems to help new representatives learn the real ins and outs, such as customer service skills, says Irma Becker, the revenue cycle manager of patient access at Phoenix.
"Customer service is a key," Becker says. "You can't be squeamish, and you have to have a lot of compassion. I don't look for experience. I want people who are customer-service oriented."
The access representative also has to be a person with thick skin, Becker says. They must deal with a lot of folks in the hospital, from custodians to clinicians. Access staff members cannot get ruffled when the going gets tough.
"It's not an easy job," Becker says. "You have to go down different avenues looking to see how you can refresh the staff. If you got a registration representative who is brand-new and her attitude is just wonderful, it tends to affect the other coworkers. You as the manager have to find ways to make the job fun again. They have to know how to respond to doctors and nurses who are stressed out. It's the most difficult job in finance. When they need a scapegoat, they say admitting did it. If they don't register right, the hospital doesn't get paid."
Tracy Walsh, LCSW, director of patient access and case management at Vail (CO) Valley Medical Center, says that the first impression the access representative makes on her is probably similar to the one he or she makes on patients.
"I think that I have learned over the years that you can teach technical skills," Walsh says. "You can't teach a person to be nice. We utilize a company that tests for these types of things prior to hire . . . It is interesting how a person might portray themselves in the interview and then when they take a test. It is like you have to go on your first impression of the person, because that is what your patient will see."
T. T. "Mitch" Mitchell of T. T. Mitchell Consulting, Inc., agrees that it is all about the first impression.
"When a patient comes into a hospital, usually the first people they see are the registration or patient access people," says Mitchell. "This means that their impression of the entire experience begins with them, and thus, it's critical that their customer service skills are outstanding and their knowledge impressive. If registration goes bad, in the patient's eyes everything else is bad also, because, as I like to say, no one ever comes to the hospital because they wanted to."
Editor's note: This article is part of the Patient Access Advisor's ongoing series, A-Plus Access, which focuses on enhancing professionalism among access staff members.
Q. What modifiers are valid when billed with Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code 96116?
Q. What modifiers are valid when billed with Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code 96116?
A. Effective January 1, 2008, the following modifiers are valid when billed with HCPCS code 96116:
- GT - Via interactive audio and video telecommunications system
- GQ - Via asynchronous telecommunications system Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
News: Boston-area health provider predicts big loss
Cambridge (MA) -- Health Alliance is facing a potentially "catastrophic" loss this year and is looking to eliminate up to 300 jobs in an effort to stabilize finances, the Boston Globe reports.
The alliance is a key part of the Boston area's healthcare network, and says it is being hit hard by the state's new healthcare reform law. The law has left the alliance responsible for providing free care for those without insurance while reducing the hospitals' compensation for such services.
To read the full story in the Boston Globe, click here.
News: St. Louis health system settles lawsuit for uninsured patients
BJC Healthcare, the area's largest healthcare system, will provide a 25% discount to all hospital patients without insurance under a new class-action settlement agreement, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Some uninsured patients treated in the past also may be eligible for refunds or discounts. Under the settlement, uninsured patients who were treated at a BJC hospital since January 1, 1999, and paid some or all of the cost, may be eligible for a partial refund or reduction in their bill. Class members will be notified of their right to submit a claim for the refund. The discounts will also apply to uninsured patients receiving treatment until at least 2012.
To read the full report in the Dispatch, click here.
Q&A: Overlapping claims
Q: When do overlapping claims occur?
A: Overlapping claims (multiple claims with the same or similar dates of service or billing period) occur when a date of service or billing period conflicts with another, indicating that one or other may be incorrect. Sometimes this happens when the provider is seeking to avoid having a claim be rejected; for example:
- When some End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) facilities prefer to obtain the inpatient hospital benefit days for the month, prior to the ESRD monthly bill being generated, thus allowing the facility to code the claim appropriately and bill around the inpatient hospital stay/stays; or
- Skilled nursing facility and inpatient hospitals stays. These situations fall into the category of disclosing information needed to bill Medicare properly, and information can be released as long as all authentication elements are met.
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
NEWS: Hospitals to get $666 million from Medicare settlement
The federal government has reached a $666 million settlement with 667 hospitals that have sued for back payments stemming from shifts in Medicare reimbursement policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The deal is among the largest government settlements paid to healthcare providers, and is the result of negotiations under way since April 2006.
To read the full story, click here.