Hospital's six-point program clears up financial picture

To deal with the many changes affecting patient accounts today and reduce the backlog in accounts due, Mercy Hospital, Hamilton and Fairfield, OH, adopted a six-point program with the following goals: Creation of an admitting and outpatient registration quality assurance program; Creation of a patient financial representative position; Commitment to electronic claims processing; Redistribution of work load in the billing office; Improved relations with community employers; Internalization of collection efforts. Since the program was implemented, the hospital has reduced accounts receivable from $15,935,000 to $10,809,000 and days outstanding from 115 to 70.7 gross. It has improved community and patient relations and intensified collection efforts, all with a staff reduction from 26 full-time employees to 24.5. The hospital's further plans include acquiring new software to electronically process commercial accounts; improving cash collections for deductibles and copayments at the time of discharge'; reducing collection expense through an automated collection software package, inexpensive collection letter series, and credit cards; and providing on-the-spot bank loans at discharge.