The patient access team is crucial they are considered “Face of the Practice” as they are the first point of contact with patient before seeing the provider for healthcare services. Patient access team is responsible for following activities:
- Appointments and scheduling,
- Patient Registration
- Collecting patient demographic details
- Collecting insurance details
- Checking patient insurance eligibility and insurance coverage
- Checking the patient’s insurance for benefits covered under the patient’s active insurance plan
- Medical record / EHR Preparation
- Collecting and posting the Co-pay from the patient
The patient access teams accurateness plays a very important role in the Revenue Cycle Management process and for the claim’s life cycle. A tool to Discover Insurance can simplify the humongous work of the patient access team.
In order for Central Billing Office to perform very effectively, it is important that the patient access team is knowledgeable and the details collected during the patient registration process is precise. To perform their work effectively the patient access team needs to be equipped with the precise tool, one such tool is eClaimStatus Insurance Discovery that provides accurate data. The accuracy of the information helps in reducing rejections, coverage related denials and AR days, thereby increasing faster turnaround of collections.
The Insurance Discovery software comes in handy for the patient access team in multiple ways. Below are few examples where the Insurance Discovery tool steps in to retrieve patients’ active coverages with limited patient demographics.
- Patient forgets to get the insurance card for registration process
- Patient does not remember the correct insurance ID number
- When the patient is not aware of other active coverage
- On the spot instances where-in the billing office staff will require to check active coverage for the patient
In a facility setup during an E&M situation, it becomes difficult to gather information on the patient and this increases the self-pay financial class which usually takes longer time to resolve/ collect the reimbursements. There are situations wherein the charges for the services becomes un-collectable this may result in moving it collections and end up as a bad debt write off.
Equipping the front office with the appropriate, user friendly, precise tools help the staff to maximize their efficiency, gathering appropriate required data, collection of co-pay, entering the relevant details into the practice management system, saving time, avoiding duplication of work and letting the patient access team to focus and work on their primary portfolio of servicing the patients.
When the front office team is able to attend to the patient needs immediately upon the patient’s arrival at the servicing facility, this provides a pleasant experience of avoiding long wait times and creating a friendly atmosphere. Such experiences make the patient feel that they are important and cared with at-most responsibility.
Along with comforting the patient with a well-maintained waiting area and amenities, state of art tools like Insurance Discovery software empowers the patient access team to be equipped to handle patient queries and provide a remarkable experience for the customers.
Leave your insurance eligibility verification to eClaimStatus. Get started with your 15-day free trial, call us at 310-294-9242 or write to us sales@eclaimstatus.com
