| According to the American Hospital Association | | | | employees being ''intelligently guided'', let's examine |
| sixty percent of hospitals in the US lose money | | | | one of the many registration processes that are |
| providing patient care; this really is a shocking | | | | key to the hospital's overall revenue cycle: the |
| statistic especially in this time of economic | | | | insurance verification process. When a registrar |
| downturn and highlights the inefficiencies in the | | | | has gathered enough information for the insurance |
| administration processes going on in US Hospitals. | | | | verification process to be initiated, a message is |
| If you have ever been treated at a hospital in the | | | | sent to the appropriate data source to validate |
| US you will probably been exposed to some of | | | | that the patient does have that particular |
| the administrative complexity which results in the | | | | insurance plan - and it is in force at that point. The |
| losses I have described. To be precise, Healthcare | | | | system then validates the terms of the plan and |
| Providers lose $60bn per year because of | | | | establishes the copay amounts; sending that |
| administrative errors. To put this into perspective | | | | information back to the registrar during the |
| this equates to the 2007 cost of providing | | | | patient registration in a user friendly form and |
| universal healthcare through the British National | | | | automatically prompting the registrar to use the |
| Health Service to 25 million people in Britain. | | | | information, and then be guided to the next set |
| Problems begin right at the registration point. It | | | | of relevant questions in the process. |
| always amazes me just how much information | | | | With other methods, the insurance verification |
| must be gathered and processes initiated at | | | | information received from the various sources is |
| patient registration time; such as insurance plan | | | | not readily available in an easy-to-use format. The |
| code identification, insurance eligibility verification, | | | | registrar has to interpret the information and |
| demographic checking, credit risk assessment, | | | | glean whatever information is relevant. On the |
| charity availability, pricing estimation and much | | | | other hand, with a system like the one described |
| more. Patient registration not only involves the | | | | above, the data is automatically interpreted and |
| creation of the patient's medical record, which | | | | the appropriate set of prompts is shown to the |
| must be accurate in order to provide appropriate | | | | registrar to enable the correct interaction with the |
| treatment and care, but, in addition, a healthcare | | | | patient and then seamlessly continue to the next |
| provider's ability to estimate cost and collect | | | | step in the registration process. |
| payments directly correlates to an efficient and | | | | The days of the bolt-on or standalone point |
| accurate registration process. | | | | solution are over! A vital requirement is that |
| To get all this done in a timely and accurate | | | | systems seamlessly integrate with the healthcare |
| fashion is a major challenge for hard pressed | | | | provider's existing patient registration system and |
| registration staff; a new and innovative approach | | | | back office systems enabling the hospital to have |
| is needed to improve the registration process is | | | | a patient registration system that determines |
| to enable hospitals to not only access the | | | | who is going to pay for the treatment and in |
| information needed, but to customize the | | | | what shares it is going to be paid. |
| information to fit the required process, and then | | | | Innovative systems like this can vastly improve |
| intelligently and automatically guide the | | | | the hospital's revenue cycle, reduce losses and |
| patient-facing employees to use the information | | | | make money available to be spent where it really |
| effectively through on-screen interactive guides. | | | | matters - providing a better service to patients. |
| To understand what I mean by the patient-facing | | | | |