Patient Admission Coordinator

Overview:

Patient Admission Coordinator, Registration & Scheduling

PRN, Varied Shifts

Covenant Health, a prominent healthcare provider, delivers a comprehensive array of medical services, including emergency response, surgical interventions, rehabilitation, and diagnostic evaluations. Our imaging services are accredited by the American College of Radiology, covering areas such as Computerized Tomography (CT), Mammography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Nuclear Medicine, and Ultrasound. Additionally, we offer skilled and long-term care through our dedicated health and rehabilitation facilities. Our team is committed to prioritizing patient care every day.

Position Summary:

The Patient Admission Coordinator is responsible for managing the centralized scheduling of outpatient diagnostic and surgical procedures. This role involves the precise collection and entry of essential financial and demographic data for all patients registered at our facility. It is crucial to ensure that benefit verification and pre-certification requirements are fulfilled prior to scheduled appointments or admissions. Follow-up on urgent or unscheduled registrations is necessary to maintain consistency in the process. The coordinator establishes protocols to ensure that unscheduled patients receive accurate information regarding their financial responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Collects co-payments and deposits based on verified information, issues receipts to payers, and ensures all cash transactions are delivered to the cashier for accurate posting to patient accounts.
• Maintains strict confidentiality of patient information.
• Recommends updates to existing policies and procedures to enhance efficiency and uphold data integrity.
• Alerts the Financial Counselor immediately upon scheduling or registering any potential self-pay or workers' compensation patients, or any non-covered procedures.
• Adjusts patient types based on information provided by Medical Records Staff and/or Care Coordinators, ensuring proper documentation is present in the medical record.
• Documents all reservations to support departmental statistics and enters faxed reservations into the scheduling system.
• Schedules operative and diagnostic procedures using the scheduling system, ensuring detailed documentation of each scheduled event.
• Verifies insurance benefits and secures pre-certification from various third-party payers, demonstrating extensive knowledge of insurance plan requirements.
• Efficiently gathers all necessary demographic, medical, and financial information for scheduling, registration, and patient account verification.
• Collaborates with clinical and care management teams to identify opportunities for improving collections and cash flow.
• Analyzes claims denial data to enhance collections, foster relationships with insurance companies and physician practices, and improve workflow processes.
• Communicates relevant procedural changes or updates to appropriate leadership.
• Interacts professionally with patients, physicians, visitors, and other hospital staff.
• Stays informed about regulatory and insurance requirements, ensuring that changes are integrated into daily operations.
• Ensures the registration process is conducted professionally, maintaining a registration accuracy rate of 95 to 100 percent.
• Explains essential information to patients and family members, including consent for treatment, advance directives, medical/financial releases, deposit requirements, billing and payment policies, and advanced beneficiary notices.
• Identifies situations requiring supervision and seeks appropriate resources.
• Assists patients to their designated nursing units or diagnostic testing areas upon completion of the registration process.
• Conducts pre-registration processes via phone and mail, informing patients of any co-pay or deductible amounts due upon admission.
• Maintains an accurate bed board using the computerized bed tracking system to minimize wait times for admitted patients.
• Coordinates with Nursing Services regarding the flow of inpatient and observation admissions.
• Demonstrates proficiency in using all Information Computer Systems relevant to patient registration and scheduling.
• Updates schedules daily to reflect unexpected procedures, cancellations, or changes, and communicates these updates to all affected individuals.
• Shows initiative to cross-train in all related duties, including Scheduling, Registration, Verification, and Pre-Certification.
• Prepares patient account folders by scanning vital registration, scheduling, and verification documents into the optical imaging system.
• Exhibits promptness in reporting for and completing work, ensuring follow-through on assigned tasks.
• Demonstrates the ability to manage multiple tasks and prioritize effectively.
• Utilizes available resources appropriately, including hospital equipment and supplies.
• Activates manual systems during computer network downtimes and notifies leadership of any unscheduled downtimes.
• Coordinates the scheduling of classrooms for meetings and conferences, ensuring confirmation for the correct date and time.
• Adheres to policies, procedures, and safety standards, completing required education assignments annually and participating in quality improvement initiatives as needed.
• Performs additional duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

Minimum Education:

None specified; any combination of formal education and/or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform essential tasks, typically equivalent to a high school diploma or GED. Preference may be given to individuals with a Bachelor's degree in a directly-related field from an accredited institution.

Minimum Experience:

One (1) year of experience in a hospital or financial setting, or a minimum of three (3) years of total customer-facing/customer service experience is required.

Licensure Requirement:

None