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Last week, a financial counselor in a US hospital, made a serious blunder.
A patient was admitted from the emergency department to a medical unit. Why? The patient tried to commit suicide by overdose. And, as usual in all hospitals across the United States, the inpatient psychiatric unit was full. While this patient was stabilizing medically, the psychiatrist discussed psychiatric options for this patient. The psychiatrist deemed, due to her situation, that she did need inpatient psychiatric care vs. outpatient care as she could not commit to a safety plan outside of the hospital.
The psychiatrist prefers to have a patient willingly enter inpatient treatment vs. being placed on a psychiatric hold. Treatment is usually accepted vs. resisted in this manner.
Why did the patient try to take her own life?
She was having serious financial issues that she felt she could not get out from under.
The psychiatrist told her that she would most likely stay in the medical unit for a few days until a psych bed opened up. At that point, she could expect to stay for psychiatric treatment for approximately 2 weeks.
An hour after the patient agreed to this plan, a financial counselor from the business office entered her room. The financial counselor told her that she did not qualify for charity care (although later, the MD found out that she was not properly assessed), nor did she qualify for Medicaid. She asked the patient, how she planned to pay for her treatment and told her that her psychiatric stay will be expensive (but did not give her an actual $$ figure).
As expected, the patient became distressed and decided to cancel her inpatient treatment.
Four hours later, the psychiatrist convinced her to stay, telling her he would figure out something.
The psychiatrist was not amused. In fact, he was quite angry. This financial counselor comprimised the safety of his patient. He went up the ladder and demanded an answer as to why a financial counselor would ever approach a psychiatric patient, let alone one who tried to take her life due to financial issues.
And the answer?
"We will make sure our staff is trained."
He asked how.
They said via meetings.
Seems as though perhaps process change needs to happen. Make it a rule that while collecting upfront is ideal, with psychiatric patients it is not.
And enforcing this rule via "meetings" will not guarantee compliance. Perhaps an alert in the registration system based on admission code that states, "Psychiatric Patient. Do not approach for payment."
And the patient? When the MD brought this situation to the forefront, the business office discovered that the patient was not properly screened for Medicaid/Charity care. She did qualify. And the financial counselor with the psychiatrist present met with the patient and assured her that her stay was covered.
To send your comments or inquiries, please email Kari Kemper or visit www.revenue360.net
If you have ever received treatment at a hospital in the US you have probably been exposed to some of the admin complexity that this entails. Such are the innefficiencies in the administration processes that according to the American Hospital Association sixty percent of hospitals lose money providing patient care.
To be precise, Healthcare Providers lose $60bn per year because of administrative errors.
To continue reading this article, go here.
To send your comments or inquiries, please email Chris Woodhead or visit www.revenue360.net
Nick's goal is to empower the provider community through technology and support.
Nick is a graduate of Miami University with a focus in Marketing and Information Systems. Nick formerly worked in marketing for Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon.
Nick Davis
Manager of Product Management
nickdavis@provider-advantage.com
Randy formerly worked at Oregon Health Sciences University in desktop support, and previously worked as a Windows 2000 migration technician for Robert Half Technology on a project for Oregon Health Sciences University.
Randy holds an MBA from Marylhurst University.
Randy Surratt
Manager of Customer Solutions
randysurratt@provider-advantage.com
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