As part of the Patient Financial Services (PFS) department, a student intern was assigned to me to assist in my task. When asked by my student intern to explain what the main function of the PFS department is my response would be that the department which is commonly also known as Patient Accounts or the Business Office. Is responsible for recording patient transactions, such as charges, payments, adjustments, and write-offs. The PFS also prepares insurance claim forms and patient statements depending on the circumstances. Not only do we process and handle the financial end for the hospital. Most importantly we have to be able to understand and be able to resolve billing issues in order to assist patients should they encounter any questions
Patient Check-In and Check-Out - If this is the patient's first visit, forms are required to be filled out, a copy of photo I.D. and verification of insurance card is accessed.
Four weeks into the observation period, the following has been determined: there are no training protocols for employees, unused job descriptions, an outdated procedure manual, little staff oversight, no formal collection of demographics and statistical patient data, no formal operating/marketing budget, no centralized tracking of monies coming and going, no client follow up, no client engagement, and no staff reviews. While this consulting project will take almost 2 years to complete and will be the focus project of my degree program, the purpose of this assignment at Alverno College, I will focus on the task assessment, addressing: job descriptions, oversight, training, and reviews. Due to the nature of the above tasks and the amount of time for development and testing of implemented tasks, some of the information presented will be theoretical and purely conjecture, at this
The careful documentation and subsequent billing process within the course of a patient’s care is an important piece within the healthcare system as a whole. Proper documentation in a patient’s chart relating to any service or procedure is not only important for this patient’s future medical care, but for the facility to receive an accurate reimbursement for the services provided. Reimbursement is affected by every department within the hospital. Healthcare is a business in the long run, and inaccuracies within the reimbursement process will affect the financial stability of the hospital. If a department is mismanaging reimbursement data it could result
Training front office staff is one of the most crucial aspects of the billing process. The front staff is usually responsible for obtaining the correct demographic information as well as insurance information from the patient. Without the correct information the claims will never be paid. This is why training front staff on insurances, collecting co-pays and knowing when to collect for additional charges that may not be covered by the patient’s insurance is
Inspect and manage medical records to insure that the correct information is being used for the right patient.
Job descriptions, procedure manuals, and office handbooks are critical to the success of a medical office because they
Offices should have a well written payment and collection policy, in order to get the pay. When it involve payment or money make sure that a patient understand why they need to pay. Its important the staff should be familiar with the policies because we are responsible for relaying the information to a patient. The policy should be post at the receptionist area and provided or explain in case a patient don't know how to read. The consequences of unclear policy can cause a lot of problem to a patient and the staff.
They are able to perform patient care by IV and oral medication administration, cardiac monitoring, airway management, blood transfusion, wound care etc… They are accountable to implement family central patient care.
Medical billing specialist are responsible for making sure the medical office and all the transactions, the diagnoses and procedure codes are taken from medical record documentation. Medical billers often communicate with physicians and other healthcare specialists to clarify diagnoses or to obtain additional information.
A role needed whilst working in the health sector, they should make sure service users’ information is confidential and stays within the workplace. This will allow the patients to trust the health worker and not be intimidated by them. Also, a health worker needs to respect the patients privacy and dignity, the little things count - pulling the curtains down if the patient is getting undressed or closing the door, this will make the service users feel respected and
Ensuring that staff has been trained in first Aid and that we have the right equipment. To complete accident forms when an accident occurs and getting the
With this particular job, daily duties will include answering the telephone, scheduling appointments, organizing medical records, processing insurance forms, etc. Also someone in this field could have bookkeeping tasks or use spreadsheets. It is necessary to have throughough knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and also PowerPoint to effectively complete these duties. If any doctor or other health official needs something done, it is an Administrator’s job to effectively complete that. Primarily since most of an
Being compassionate and available to provide support to the patients and their families in difficult times
In my place of work, the head nurse sees the budgeting as the responsibility of everybody. She involves the members of staff including the accountant, pharmacist for effective use of funds. She takes into consideration the supplies for products looking at the stock and not tooping it up with each order. This ensures that stocks are not wasted and misused.
The first step in this project was accurate data collection and I was responsible to observe the current process of operation and gather as much data as possible that helps the team to develop the working processes for smooth and optimized operation. In the first step, I introduced myself to the client’s staff and explained that I need to have access to certain data and operation procedures to get an accurate understating about the current status of the company. It was a challenging step, because the data I required from the company was often mixed with patient’s data that made it impossible to share with third party. Therefore, I decided that I would visit the company in operation and collect the data in person. Upon my visit, I noticed the billing process and coding involves many parties including