Discounting Best Practices
Product Description:
AUDIOCONFERENCE ON CD OR AUDIO ON-DEMAND
Sponsored by PFS Director's Handbook
presented on May 28, 2008
Reducing patients' bills can increase their propensity to pay, while decreasing the amount of bad debt you must write off. However, compliance issues exist when you discount bills, and you must be on your guard to avoid anti-kickback issues, understand the status of the prohibition on billing Medicare "substantially in excess of charges," and ensure uniformity between charity care policies for Medicare beneficiaries and other patients.
Listen to HCPro's 90-minute audioconference Discounting Best Practices: Strategies and Success Stories to Remain Compliant. Healthcare attorney Robin Fisk, Esq., will discuss the compliance risk associated with reducing patient bills, as well as methods you can incorporate to avoid government scrutiny. PFS Directors Melissa L. Foley (Speare Memorial Hospital, (Plymouth, NH) and Julie A. LaFrance (St. Joseph’s Hospital, (Highland, IL) detail specific discounting practices they have installed at their facility, provide feedback on how they implemented their particular program, and explain what worked and why for you to consider for your own operation.
At the end of this audioconference, your staff will be able to:
- Structure discounts to avoid conflicts with federal and private payors
- Increase the number of financial assistance applications
- Decrease bad debt
- Identify patients that qualify for uninsured or underinsured benefits
- Provide assistance completing the paperwork associated with discounting
- Comply with the federal poverty guidelines
- Achieve staff and leadership buy-in
AGENDA
- Overview of Discounting
- Discussion of the issues presented by the different types of payment discounts
- Prompt-pay discounts
- Discounts to the uninsured and underinsured
- Discounts based on financial need
- Avoid anti-kickback issues
- Billing Medicare “substantially in excess of charges”
- Uniformity between charity care policies for Medicare beneficiaries and other patients
- St Joseph’s Hospital Case Study
- How to identify the need to serve uninsured and underinsured
- How they identified the gap in charity coverage
- What was added to the service
- The results on an enhanced discounting program
- How the program works
- Documents included in the program
- How to determine the criteria
- How to determine the procedures
- Prompt pay discounting
- Speare Memorial Hospital Case Study
- How to integrate state programs into the facility's new policies and procedures
- How to identify uninsured/under insured patients at the time of registration
- Offering appointments with financial counselor to patients
- Training staff on the procedures
- Tips to screen the patients application
- Using an ID card to identify patients throughout the state
- Question & Answer session
BONUS TOOLS
In addition to the expertise and advice presented during this audioconference, you'll also receive a slide presentation of the program materials and:
- Sample policies and patient letters
- Sample brochures featuring charity care and underinsured programs
These materials are provided with PDF links.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Melissa L. Foley, Director Patient Financial Services, Speare Memorial Hospital. Ms. Foley has more than 20 years of healthcare experience working in a variety of capacities. She began her career in patient access and moved to credit and collections, claims, provider relations representative with Medicaid and a patient financial services supervisor. She is now the director of Patient Financial Services at a Critical Access Hospital.
Julie A. LaFrance, MBA, Director of Patient Financial Services, St. Joseph's Hospital. Ms. LaFrance has 19 years of healthcare experience working in a variety of capacities. Prior to her current position she worked as an I.T. project manager for a national insurance company, installed practice management applications at a number of large multi-specialty hospitals throughout the U.S., and worked as a Billing Office manager for a large, multiple-specialty university-based physician group while serving on the software vendor's product design advisory committee.
Robin Fisk, Esq. represents health care providers, practitioners, insurers and managed care organizations. Ms. Fisk advises clients on regulatory compliance and negotiates managed care contracts – for payers and providers. Prior to forming her own practice, she served as in-house counsel to Healthsource, Inc., now CIGNA Healthcare Corporation. Ms. Fisk is a frequent lecturer on managed care, Medicare and other health law topics, and is the contributing editor of Beyond the Contract: Managing your relationship with the healthcare payer, published by HCPro.
WHO SHOULD LISTEN?
Employees in large physician practices and hospitals, including the following titles and departments:
- Patient Financial Service Directors
- CFOs, CEOs, COOs
- Revenue Cycle managers
- Patient Access managers
- Compliance officers
AUDIO ON-DEMAND
In addition to the regular purchase options for HCPro audioconferences, we are pleased to offer another option, an audio on-demand. Audio on-demand allows you to download the program and play it back at your convenience through your computer or MP3 player. Purchase a CD or audio archive of the program and listen when you can. It's also a perfect training tool for new staff or as a refresher for veteran staff.Product Types : Departments :
