Healthcare IT News - March 2008 - (Page 14)

14 Healthcare IT News ■ March 2008 HoSpITalS & IdNs www.HealthcareITNews.com Pediatric advice line gets tech boost HealTHCare IT News ATLANTA – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a leading pediatric hospital in the Southeast, plans to upgrade its electronic telephone triage system to enable a more streamlined process for patients, health professionals and call center employees. Children’s just announced a technology deal with British healthcare IT firm Clinical Solutions. The company, with U.S. offices in Duluth, Ga. , will provide the hospital with their new call center system, which will be the first of its kind in Georgia. “By improving the technology we use to process and respond to calls, our staff will have the tools they need to maintain a high level of patient care,” said Robin Pajot, director at Children’s. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: aDvIce 0308 sTreaMlINe Continued from page 11 l According to Philip Wells, director of Patient Financial Services at EMH, the hospital has experienced 17 percent growth in uncompensated care while reimbursement remained flat over the past two years. “Over the last two decades, we successfully kept bad debt expense to a minimum,” said Wells. “However, recent changes in the local economy and the growing share of patient liability for services resulted in esca- Columbus Regional Hospital ofﬁcials say they expect to see results from their IT initiative to cut bad debt and streamline admissions in about three to ﬁve months. lating delinquencies. To keep prices competitive while providing the service our patients have come to expect, we realized that we needed to reduce the financial impact of grow- Easy. Ergonomic. Economic. Carstens redesigned WALKaroo III™ now features an easy-lift cylinder with hand lever control for smooth adjustment to sitting or standing positions. WALKaroo III also features: Options: For more information www.carstensEHR.com 1.800.621.5051. ing bad debt.” TransUnion’s HRCP verifies a patient’s identity at the point-of-service by matching identifying information such as address, phone and other contact information against its database to ensure the information the patient provides is accurate. HRCP also helps hospital registration staff determine a patient’s financial resources, including private or public insurance coverage, co-payment, deductible responsibilities and benefit limits. If the patient qualifies for charity care then the appropriate forms are populated. “Although we looked at several solutions, we selected TransUnion’s HRCP because we liked its real-time access to data and built-in charity determination,” said Wells. “By objectively and quickly identifying those patients who qualify for charity care that would otherwise be considered bad debt at the point of service, we’ll benefit in three ways. First, we can protect those unable to pay and our non-profit status. Second, we’ll significantly reduce administrative work involved in processing charity applications. Finally, we can identify those with an ability to pay and improve our collections.” By being able to verify patient identities, the hospital can also reduce returned mail. Wells says 5 percent of the population EMH serves is uninsured, but represents 55 percent of the bad addresses in the hospital’s database. By confirming a patient’s identity at the point of service, the hospital will be able to reduce the occurrence of medical bills being sent to wrong addresses and subsequently can write that care off as bad debt. Before turning to TransUnion’s HRCP platform, Columbus Regional Hospital officials found they were processing approximately 250 pieces a month in returned mail. “ TransUnion’s Healthcare Revenue Cycle Platform is to assist us in the conversation we have with the patient during registration. We are focusing our efforts on the ED where we have the majority of returned mail and see many patients without insurance or insurance information on them,” said Susan Rust, director of patient financial services for Columbus Regional Hospital. Rust says a 24/7 financial counselor in the ED checks the TransUnion information on private pay patients and talks with patients as they leave the ED to establish payment arrangements or collect insurance co-pay. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: StreaMLINe 0308 l © Copyright 2008 Carstens e l Connect: carSteNS 0308 Your Partner in the Evolution of Charting http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8871 http://www.carstensEHR.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.carstensEHR.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8866

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Healthcare IT News - March 2008 Contents No. 1 E-prescribing ‘Quite Bright’ Bill Frist on IT Google Connection Poised for P4P ‘Smashing Success’ Tough On Fraud It's Analytics Getting Rid of the Pain Stuck In Neutral

Healthcare IT News - March 2008

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