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Patient access areas are moving financial discussions earlier in the process to give patients detailed information about their coverage. At Sutter Health, upfront collections rose by 25% as a result of giving price estimates when pre-registering patients.
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A Patient Contact Center At Pittsburgh-based UPMC Handles Scheduling, Discharge Planning, And Collection Of Unpaid Balances For More Than A Dozen Hospitals And 23 Specialties.
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A growing number of patient access areas offer self-service options with online registration or kiosks. Registration times decreased by almost 50% after kiosks were implemented at five of Integris Healths hospitals.
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will begin conducting desk audits for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in October 2014. These audits will be conducted remotely by requesting compliance documentation.
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Two organizations will pay a combined $4.8 million to settle a case sparked by a breach of protected health information (PHI). The settlement is the largest ever for a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
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In patient rooms, doctors are prescribing a low-sodium diet to improve health. But in hospital cafeterias, employees and visitors may be loading up on salty and processed food.
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Safe patient handling may become an imperative in the nations hospitals not because of any proposed legislation or regulation, but because of rising financial pressures related to both patient safety and workers compensation.
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Standardized language in health care is not yet universal, which can cause problems when implementing electronic health records (EHRs) in an employee health setting.
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Hospitals increasingly are teaching managers to look for signs of drug abuse among employees, focusing on subtle clues like talk of financial problems or more blatant signs, such as arriving to work late or failing to show up as scheduled.
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Health care systems handle cases of employee substance abuse in a variety of ways from punitive measures to providing treatment and long follow-up care and monitoring.