Patient Registration Spec

Covenant Health • Crossville, TN

13d • Onsite

About The Position

Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville, Tennessee, part of Covenant Health, is seeking a Patient Registration Specialist. This acute care hospital, accredited by the Joint Commission, offers private patient rooms and comprehensive services including cardiology, orthopedics, maternity, cancer treatment, and wound care. The hospital also features emergency and critical care, surgical suites, and specialized programs. The Patient Registration Specialist will coordinate the centralized scheduling of outpatient diagnostic and surgical procedures, accurately collect and enter financial and demographic information, and ensure benefit verification and pre-certification requirements are met. This role also involves following up on urgent or unscheduled registrations and informing unscheduled patients about their financial liability.

Requirements

• Minimum Education: None specified; will accept any combination of formal education and/or prior work experience sufficient to demonstrate possession of the knowledge, skill, and ability needed to perform the essential tasks of the job, typically such as would be equivalent to a high school diploma or GED.
• Minimum Experience: One (1) year experience in a hospital or financial setting OR minimum three (3) years of total customer facing/customer service experience required.
• Licensure Requirement: None

Nice To Haves

• Preference may be given to individuals possessing a Bachelor’s degree in a directly-related field from an accredited college or university.

Responsibilities

• Collects co-payments/deposits based on verification information obtained, generates receipts, and delivers cash transactions to the cashier.
• Maintains strict confidentiality of patient information.
• Recommends updates to policies and procedures to the Coordinator.
• Notifies the Financial Counselor of potential self-pay, worker’s compensation, or non-covered procedures.
• Makes patient type changes based on information from Medical Records Staff and/or Care Coordinators, ensuring supporting documentation.
• Ensures all reservations are properly documented to support departmental statistics.
• Enters faxed reservations into the HBOC scheduling system.
• Schedules operative and diagnostic procedures utilizing the HBOC scheduling system.
• Documents each scheduled procedure/event with detailed information.
• Notifies departments of any special resources required for procedure/event.
• Verifies insurance benefits and obtains pre-certification from various third-party payers.
• Provides necessary documentation to DHS and Med Assist staff for patients needing financial assistance or TennCare enrollment.
• Gathers demographic, medical, and financial information for scheduling, registration, and verification using the HBOC computer system.
• Enters verification and pre-certification notes into SMS financial system.
• Participates with clinical and care management areas to improve collections and cash flow.
• Analyzes claims denial data for opportunities to improve collections, relations with insurance companies and physician practices, and workflow processes.
• Reports pertinent procedural changes/updates to appropriate leadership.
• Professionally interacts with patients, physicians, visitors, and hospital staff.
• Stays abreast of regulatory and insurance requirements and incorporates changes into daily job functions.
• Ensures the registration process is handled professionally, maintaining a registration accuracy rate of 95 to 100 percent.
• Explains necessary information to patients/families, such as consent for treatment, advance directives, medical/financial release, deposit requirements, billing and payment policies, and advanced beneficiary notices.
• Recognizes situations requiring supervision and seeks appropriate resources.
• Directs, escorts, and/or provides wheelchair assistance to patients upon completion of registration.
• Demonstrates motivation for acceptable productivity.
• Understands departmental goals and objectives in consideration of Covenant Health's mission and values.
• Performs pre-registration process via phone and mail, advising patients of co-pay or deductible amounts due.
• Maintains an accurate bed board using the computerized bed tracking system to minimize patient wait times.
• Coordinates with Nursing Services on the flow of inpatient and observation patient admissions.
• Demonstrates competence in using Information Computer Systems for registration and scheduling (DeRoyal, HBOC, Account Link, Medifax).
• Updates schedules daily for unexpected procedures, cancellations, or changes and communicates with affected individuals.
• Cross-trains in all duties related to scheduling, registration, verification, and pre-certification.
• Prepares patient account folders by scanning vital registration/scheduling/verification documents into the optical imaging system and indexing them.
• Demonstrates ability to handle varying tasks and set priorities.
• Utilizes available resources appropriately (hospital equipment and/or supplies).
• Activates manual systems for computer network downtime and prints schedules in advance when necessary.
• Notifies leadership of unscheduled downtime occurrences.
• Coordinates scheduling of classrooms for meetings, conferences, etc., ensuring confirmation.
• Follows policies, procedures, and safety standards.
• Completes required education assignments annually.
• Works toward achieving goals and objectives, and participates in quality improvement initiatives.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED