Establishing ownership of the hospital bill in admissions: a key to protecting your facility's fiscal integrity.
You have a plan and you have educated and documented that the patient is cognizant of his/her responsibility. Reality often dictates that problems surface after discharge. How can we prevent the patient from placing the bill on a shelf and forgetting it? As a part of your hospital's bottomline, you have a responsibility to ensure that its fiscal integrity is protected. Afterall, your hospital is also a business as well as a healing institution. Taking the lead in getting the right information at the admission or precertification stage is a vital element in the collection loop. Second, realize that not all, but a majority of patients, are beginning to investigate their benefits and coverage limitations. They may be doing so without a total understanding of insurance terminology or the difference in how much of the hospital/physician charges are paid or what percent rests with them. Last, in Pennsylvania at least, the state requires active participation by hospitals in healthcare cost containment by requiring submission rate and medical outcome information. Why not take this opportunity as an admitting professional to try some of the strategies mentioned. Informing the patient of their insurance benefits and providing an estimate of the bill will increase your department's contribution, and educate the patient about "consumerism". Consumerism is developing within the healthcare industry.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
McGovern
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Alfred I. du Pont Institute Children's Hospital, Wilmington, DE.
D000289:Admitting Department, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D004282:Documentation; D007182:Income; D007350:Insurance, Hospitalization; D010350:Patient Credit and Collection; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010934:Planning Techniques; D014481:United States