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You might receive a citation from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration if you fail to assess respiratory hazards related to 2009 H1N1, don't use various methods to reduce employee exposure or fail to consider respirators other than N95s when there is a shortage.
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Is your patient access staff familiar with federal requirements for giving patients information on how to file complaints or grievances?
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The Medicare Secondary Payer questionnaire is not complete. The Medicare number is missing from a replacement plan. The subscriber name or date of birth is a mismatch. An account has incorrect insurance coded for third-party liability.
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Does an individual have flawless references and impressive skills? That doesn't matter much if his or her service skills are lacking.
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Registration staff were too careless to get accurate insurance information. A patient access employee was mean to a patient. Wait times at registration were ridiculously long because staff are incompetent. The list goes on and on. Too often, patient access bears the brunt of negative feedback from other areas of the hospital.
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More than ever, patient access staff are coping with angry and frustrated patients.
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Heidi Dunbar, manager of admitting/emergency department coordinator at Seattle Children's Hospital, says that although it's often very hard to find time for them, monthly staff meetings are always worth the time they take. "About 90% of staff come to meetings, which means they are getting something out of them," she says. "We have a very open environment, and people always have interesting things to say that you would never imagine."
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It's unlikely that many patient access professionals are seeing huge raises these days. "With the economy as it's been, I would imagine increases are minimal and folks are scrambling to hold on to their jobs," says Peter Kraus, CHAM, CPAR, a business analyst with patient financial services at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
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Imagine one person complaining nonstop about everything from rude patients to out-of-ink pens. Over time, that individual can manage to undo hours of hard work and morale-boosting initiatives, and send your customer service crumbling.
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By law, how far can you go in screening employees or altering leave policies during a pandemic? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), privacy and state leave laws still apply, limiting what employers can do, advises Nina Massen, JD, senior associate with the disability, leave and health management practice group of Jackson Lewis LLP in White Plains, NY.