Patient Registration Spec

Covenant Health•Crossville, TN

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Patient Registration Specialist coordinates centralized scheduling for outpatient diagnostic and surgical procedures and accurately collects and enters patients’ demographic and financial information. The role verifies insurance benefits and pre-certification requirements before scheduled appointments or admissions, follows up on urgent or unscheduled registrations, and helps ensure patients understand their financial liability. The specialist supports registration, scheduling, admissions, and account documentation using hospital computer systems. The position works with patients, families, physicians, hospital departments, clinical and care management teams, financial counselors, and insurers to maintain accurate records, support collections, and facilitate patient flow. It also handles registration documents through an optical imaging system, maintains bed-tracking information, and follows applicable policies, procedures, confidentiality standards, and safety requirements. This is a full-time, 80-hours-per-pay-period night-shift position at Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tennessee, part of Covenant Health.

Requirements

At least one year of experience in a hospital or financial setting, or at least three years of total customer-facing/customer-service experience.
Sufficient formal education and/or prior work experience to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the essential job tasks; this is typically equivalent to a high school diploma or GED.
No licensure requirement.

Nice To Haves

A bachelor’s degree in a directly related field from an accredited college or university is preferred.

Responsibilities

Collect co-payments and deposits based on verified information, provide receipts, and deliver cash transactions to the cashier for posting.
Maintain the confidentiality of patient information.
Recommend policy and procedure updates to the Coordinator to support organizational values, efficiency, and data integrity.
Notify the Financial Counselor when scheduling or registering potential self-pay patients, workers’ compensation patients, or patients with non-covered procedures.
Make patient-type changes based on information from Medical Records staff or Care Coordinators, ensuring supporting documentation is present in the medical record.
Document reservations to support departmental statistics and enter faxed reservations into the HBOC scheduling system.
Schedule operative and diagnostic procedures using the HBOC system, document each procedure or event in detail, and notify departments of special resource needs.
Verify insurance benefits and obtain pre-certification from third-party payers.
Provide documentation to DHS and Med Assist staff for patients who may need financial assistance or TennCare enrollment.
Gather and enter demographic, medical, and financial information for scheduling, registration, and account verification using the HBOC system.
Enter verification and pre-certification notes into the SMS financial system for cross-reference.
Work with clinical and care management areas to identify opportunities to improve collections and cash flow.
Analyze claims denial data to identify opportunities to improve collections, insurer and physician-practice relations, and workflow.
Report relevant procedural changes and updates to appropriate leadership.
Interact professionally with patients, physicians, visitors, and hospital staff.
Keep current with regulatory and insurance requirements and incorporate changes into daily work.
Maintain registration accuracy at a rate of 95 to 100 percent.
Explain registration information to patients or family members, including treatment consent, advance directives, medical and financial releases, deposit requirements, billing and payment policies, and advanced beneficiary notices.
Recognize situations requiring supervision and seek appropriate resources.
Direct, escort, or provide wheelchair assistance to patients after registration to the appropriate nursing unit or diagnostic testing area.
Meet acceptable productivity expectations and understand departmental goals and objectives in relation to Covenant Health’s mission and values.
Complete pre-registration by phone and mail and advise patients of co-pay or deductible amounts due upon admission.
Maintain the computerized bed board to help minimize wait times for admitted patients and coordinate inpatient and observation admissions with Nursing Services.
Use information systems for registration and scheduling, including DeRoyal, HBOC, Account Link, and Medifax.
Update schedules daily for unexpected procedures, cancellations, and changes, and communicate revisions to affected individuals.
Show initiative in cross-training for scheduling, registration, verification, and pre-certification duties.
Prepare patient account folders by scanning and indexing registration, scheduling, and verification documents into the correct electronic file folders.
Handle varied tasks and set priorities appropriately; use hospital equipment and supplies appropriately.
Activate manual processes during computer network downtime, print schedules in advance when necessary, and notify leadership of unscheduled downtime.
Coordinate classroom scheduling for meetings and conferences and confirm the correct date and time.
Follow policies, procedures, and safety standards; complete required annual education assignments.
Work toward goals and objectives and participate in quality improvement initiatives as requested.
Perform other duties as assigned.