Ask staff to ID why copay uncollected
Ask staff to ID why copay uncollected
Reason can help you to improve
If a copay isn't collected at Cincinnati (OH) Children's Hospital Medical Center, patient access trainers want to know the reason why. This information is important, says Michelle Gray, MHA, director of patient access and outpatient registration, because it helps you to identify areas needing improvement to increase copay collection rates.
Dorris Ball, patient access trainer and quality control auditor, says, "When a copay isn't collected during the registration process, the challenge is to get the registrar to enter the correct non-collection reason."
During training, Ball tells staff to "think insurance first," instead of the visit type, since the visit type doesn't necessarily mean the copay isn't required. "A valid reason would be that the payer doesn't require a copay or that a patient is back for a post-operative visit within the global period, so no copay is required," she explains.
Staff now document specific reasons in the comment section, such as, "Patient declined to pay copay and asked to be billed," along with the amount of money that was not received. This information is included in a hospitalwide report and is used to identify training needs for the staff, says Gray.
Education on obtaining this detailed information is important to improve copay collection rates, says Gray, but training on the revenue cycle process is also key. "We've shared with our registrars that payer reimbursement is decreasing every year," she says. "When we don't collect a copay, there is a cost on the back end to send out a bill."
If a copay isn't collected at Cincinnati (OH) Children's Hospital Medical Center, patient access trainers want to know the reason why. This information is important, says Michelle Gray, MHA, director of patient access and outpatient registration, because it helps you to identify areas needing improvement to increase copay collection rates.Subscribe Now for Access
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