JEFF DRAKE, PASSPORT HEALTH

Hospitals, physician practices and other ancillary providers are continually challenged to find a balance between quality of care and long-term financial viability. Neither can be accomplished without the other, and mounting economic pressures like the increasing number of uninsured patients and decreasing reimbursements from CMS are making it more difficult than ever to collect payment for services.

But integrated technology is helping providers strike the clinical/financial balance by automating many administrative functions that, until relatively recently, were all manual and paper-based.

Imagine visiting the nation’s most advanced hospital or doctor’s office and needing contact with no other individuals except the nurse or doctor. Technology is available that can perform practically every non-clinical process for providers, saving time and money, and effectively removing a good deal of human intervention:

• A patient schedules an appointment online through the hospital or physician practice Web site. He immediately receives a confirmation of the appointment via e-mail.
• When patients schedule appointments, they are also asked to key in their insurance information and demographic data –– such as address, social security number, and other pertinent information. Behind the scenes, a Web portal connects to various data sources to confirm their identity and calculate benefits prior to the scheduled visit.
• A day before the visit, the patient receives a reminder via e-mail. In that same e-mail, it indicates an estimate of how much the patient will owe for the visit and even gives the option to pay online through the hospital or practice’s Web site.
• On the day of the appointment, the patient arrives to find a waiting room containing only patients and no office staff. He proceeds to the self-serve kiosk in the corner of the room and uses the touch screen to let the physician know he has arrived. The patient then has an opportunity to update any previously provided insurance and demographic information. If the patient did not remit payment during scheduling, he is also given an opportunity to swipe his credit card at the kiosk.
• As he waits and reads a magazine, a recorded voice calls the next patient name over the loudspeaker as the name also flashes on an LCD screen mounted near the ceiling.
• When the patient’s name is called, he proceeds to the examination room and waits for the physician to arrive. She comes in carrying a tablet laptop and stylus pen, which she uses to record the details of the examination in the patient’s personal record, provides any necessary home care instructions to follow and uploads prescriptions to the pharmacy of choice.
• Within 24 hours the patient receives a follow-up e-mail from the physician thanking him for the visit and summarizing the details, including any unpaid balance on the account. A link within the e-mail takes the patient to a lengthier synopsis of his healthcare history, which is kept in a secure location of the hospital or practice Web site.
• If the bill remains unpaid within 30 days from the initial visit, the patient gets a reminder email with a link to the hospital or practice’s Web site where he can submit payment or request a payment plan.