This article summary focuses on a registration process using kiosks. Baptist Health in Montgomery, Alabama uses registration kiosks to speed up registration, improve patient identification, improve patient communication, and improve point-of-service (POS) collections (Butcher, 2015). According to Jeri Pack, system director of revenue solutions for Baptist Health, it has been statistically proven that patient collections will increase either at POS or afterward (Butcher, 2015). If the patient receives a written estimate on his or her financial responsibility, there is a 60 percent chance of collecting that amount than if the patient was not informed beforehand (Butcher, 2015). The registration kiosks have diminished Baptist Health’s patient check-in time from 15 minutes to three minutes (Butcher, 2015). Patients present their driver licenses at the kiosk to be scanned. At that point, the registration kiosk matches the patient with the scheduled appointment, and asks the patient to confirm his or her demographic information documented in the electronic medical records system (Butcher, 2015). The registration kiosk can even distinguish copayments for …show more content…
Then, patients have the choice of paying at POS or paying later (Butcher, 2015). For uninsured patients, the estimation tool automatically raises the discount program. Baptist Health incorporates a 40 percent reduction from the full amount (Butcher, 2015). However, numerous patients cannot bear the high costs of health care services, even at a reduced rate. In this case, patients at Baptist Health are referred to a registrar who uses a four-question study to determine if a patient qualifies for Medicaid (Butcher, 2015). If a patient does not qualify for Medicaid and cannot bear the estimated costs, he or she is referred to a financial counselor to apply for charity care (Butcher,
On the basis of the clinic’s previous collections experience, Dough was able to convert billings for medical services into actual cash collections. On average, about 20% of the clinic’s patients pay immediately for services rendered. Third-party payers pay the remaining claims, with 20% of the payments made within 30 days and the 60% remainder (of total billings) paid within 60 days. For monthly budgeting purposes, 20% are assumed to be collected one month after the billing month, and 60% are assumed to be collected two months after the billing month.
While the data was collected by identifying patients with the highest medical costs, lowering medical costs was never Brenner’s goal; “he was more interested in helping people who received bad health care” (Gawande, 2011). Although a clearly defined list of action steps is not outlined in the literature (Gawande, 2011; “Jeffrey C. Brenner,” 2013; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014) Brenner clearly began by using his funds to hire a staff and increase his pool of data, identified the most vulnerable patients by health care cost and emergency room and hospital visit frequency, met with the most vulnerable patients, acquired information about all of the factors affecting the patient’s health through forming relationships, and then based on the client’s needs, utilized a custom case plan to improve the delivery of health care services to the patient (Gawande, 2011; “Jeffrey C. Brenner,” 2013; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has initiated reimbursement based off of patient satisfaction scores (Murphy, 2014). In fact, “CMS plans to base 30% of hospitals ' scores under the value-based purchasing initiative on patient responses to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, or HCAHPS, which measures patient satisfaction” (Daly, 2011, p. 30). Consequently, a hospital’s HCAHPS score could influence 1% of a Medicare’s hospital reimbursement, which could cost between $500,000 and $850,000, depending on the organization (Murphy, 2014).
Connecting and teaming up with other community interested parties allows the organization to support the financial and quality goals, and coordinate care across the board giving more efficient and quality care (McKesson, 2018). This could help bring occupancy and admission levels up along with maximizing technology’s value by connecting the dots to help reduce complexities and cost. As regulatory, financial, clinical and consumer pressures influence healthcare organizations to produce and provide more effective and efficient care, healthcare technology becomes even more
The federal government has taken a stance to standardized care by creating incentive programs that are mandated under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009. This act encourages healthcare providers and healthcare institutions to adopt Meaningful use in order to receive incentives from Medicare and Medicaid. Meaningful use is the adoption of a certified health record system that acquires or obtains specified objectives about a patient. The objectives or measures are considered gold standard practices with the EHR system. Examples of the measures include data entry of vital signs, demographics, allergies, entering medical orders, providing patients with electronic copies of their records, and many more pertinent information regarding the patient (Friedman et al, 2013, p.1560).
In December 2011, Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) received federal approval of a Medicaid Section 1115(a) Demonstration Waiver, entitled “Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program,” for the period starting with December 12, 2011 through September 20, 2016. The main objective of the 1115 Waiver is to improve access to and quality of health care by expanding Medicaid managed care programs and promoting health care delivery system reforms while containing cost growth. Specifically, the Waiver created two new pools of funding—Uncompensated Care (UC) and Delivery System Redesign and Innovation Payment (DSRIP) pools—by redirecting funds that were available under the old Upper Payment Limit (UPL) payment methodology. DSRIP funding is used to offer financial incentives to health care providers that develop and implement projects aimed at improving how care is delivered to low-income populations. Specifically, the providers (often referred to as the “performing providers” or “performers”) propose and execute projects like programs, strategies, and investments designed to enhance access to health care, quality of health care, cost-effectiveness of services, and health of the patients and families served.
The Healthy Body Wellness Center 's (HBWC) Office of Grants Giveaway (OGG) provides medical grants to hospitals and facilities. The company 's mission is to promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of medical grants through federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information. As part of fulfilling the businesses objectives of the HBWC OGG has contracted with We Automate Anything (WAA) to design and implement the Small Hospital Tracking System (SHGTS). The SHGTS is vital in the current functioning of the OGG as part of the HBWCs mission statement, and allows for the monitoring and distribution of grant funds. The SHGTS also functions to coll...
Staton, R., Bautista, A., Harwell, J., Jensen, L., Minister, A., & Roller, S. (2013). Computerized Provider Order Entry Awareness for Nursing: Unintended Consequences and Remediation Plan. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 31(9), 401–405. doi:10.1097/CIN.0000000000000005
Allowing the patients to choose the scheduled time of when to make an appointment with the physician makes them feel welcome. The flexibility is increased significantly; besides, the fact is a personal commitment makes them feel the need to see the doctors for treatments. The clinics may also consider moving hospitals closer to their patients. Alternatively they may opt to have mobile clinics when they have the highest patient turn out and take treatment to those who feel they may otherwise not be able to afford treatment (Humphries & Eddy, 2000). Reminders also helps to increase the attendance rate since patients may fail to attend due to finances and busy schedules (Phipps, 2003).
Health insurance is currently an important issue in the United States. Everyday more and more Americans become uninsured due to job loss and an increase in premiums. These Americans add to the ever growing population of 45.7 million people who are currently uninsured (Bialik). Moreover only 27% of those uninsured are under the age of 65 (NCHC). This is staggering considering most of those who are uninsured have, or soon will, suffer from some sort of illness or injury. As a result they will not be able to afford proper treatment. Insurance premiums can range in cost from fifty dollars per month, to fifteen hundred dollars per month (Kreidler). An individual’s premium is determined by factors they choose as well as other factors looked at by their provider. The cost of health insurance in America varies depending on the controllable factors, like particular insurance policies, and uncontrollable factors, like age.
Medicaid is a broken system that is largely failing to serve its beneficiary’s needs. Despite its chronic failures to deliver quality health care, Medicaid is seemingly running up a gigantic tab for tax payers (Frogue, 2003). Medicaid’s budget woes are secondary to its insignificant structure, leaving its beneficiaries with limited choices, when arranging for their own health care. Instead, regulations are set in order to drive costs down; instead of allowing Medicaid beneficiaries free rein to choose whom they will seek care from (Frogue, 2003)
In 2009 President Obama, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, pledged to provide incentives to the nation’s physicians and hospitals to convert to an electronic healthcare system in attempt to improve the quality of care and reduce cost (Freudenheim, 2010). By converting to an electronic system, we have the opportunity for improved communication between all healthcare providers and decreased cost to our healthcare system. The goal is to improve communication across all aspects of the service chain (Horan, Botts & Burkhard, 2010). Almost two years later, the conversion progress continues to be slow. Only one in four physician’s offices, mostly large groups, have implemented the electronic record system (Freudenheim, 2010).
A. Determination of the feasibility of one of the proposed service lines in the attached “Service Line Development Case Study”. Trinity Community Hospital is based in an economically sound community. Structured 25 years ago, in a prime location, this 150-bed, non-for-profit hospital offers to the community residents a broad range of general medical, surgical, and support services. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 signed into law requires a non-profit hospital to conduct a community needs assessment. To justify their tax exemption every three years, a thorough analysis of community assessments will be widely publicized.
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Electronic medical records not only effect health care professionals, but the patients of those health care providers as well. However, nurses spend the most time directly using electronic medical records to access patient date and chart. Nurses now learn to chart, record data, and interact with other health care providers electronically. Many assume that electronic means efficient, and the stories of many nurses both agree, and disagree. Myra Davis-Alston, a nurse from Las Vegas, NV, says that she “[likes] the immediate access to patient progress notes from all care providers, and the ability to review cumulative lab values and radiology reports” (Eisenberg, 2010, p. 9). This form of record keeping provides health care professionals with convenient access to patient notes, vital signs, and test results from multiple providers comprised into one central location. They also have the ability to make patients more involved in their own care (Ross, 2009). With the advancement in efficiency, also comes the reduction of costs by not printing countless paper records, and in turn, lowers health care