Healthcare organizations around the country are recouping more deserved
reimbursement for the care they provide with a few simple tactics. Try these…

Ensure Patients Complete the Registration Process
Many organizations are surprised when they begin to track the number of patients who leave without providing secondary insurance information. It's easy for staff who are busy with bedside registration to miss them. Here's how to track and trend these patients: Begin reviewing registration reports daily for patients who registered but did not complete secondary registration and report the numbers to leadership. One ED was surprised to find that 43 out of 84 of its patients one day had not provided insurance information, making it difficult to collect payment later.

What to do: Create a barrier or a second check before patients are discharged. Require ED staff to walk patients to a "back end" discharge desk where patients can pick up discharge instructions, complete their registration, and pay their co-payment. Track and communicate dollars collected to help staff understand that this extra step is important for the financial health of the organization because it is reinvested back into patient care. To hardwire this behavior, track by shift the percentage of patients who are walked to the discharge desk. Then hold charge nurses accountable for their number (e.g., "When Tony is on shift, 80% of nurses are going to the discharge desk, but when Jackie's on, only 4% do it.") Use these percentages within the staff evaluation process.

Cross-Check Patient Billing Information
There are many ways to ensure you have the patient's correct address and phone number if all staff understand how they can help. During secondary registration, for example, you can train staff to use key words to ensure they are collecting accurate information. Say, "Protecting your personal identity and contact information is important to us. Can you please state your address?" (This is preferable to saying, "Is your address 92 Easy Street?") You can also request a driver's license or other form of ID during secondary registration. Set a daily goal with registration staff for number of charts that include verification identification. Then track actual to goal.

Secondly, ensure communication between registration staff and other staff that may be mailing or calling patients so that wrong addresses and phone numbers are detected early. Some examples: If your organization receives returned mail when sending patient satisfaction surveys or thank you notes (or clinicians reach an incorrect number during discharge phone calls), ensure that registration leadership receives this information. They can then explore potential improvements to how they collect information (e.g., tracing wrong addresses and phone numbers back to the registrar that collected it.)