Patient Access Associate
The Patient Access Associate (PAA) is a hospital-based, non-clinical healthcare professional who serves as the first point of contact for patients. In this pivotal role, the PAR ensures a positive patient experience during the registration and admission processes by accurately collecting essential demographic and financial information.1. Patient Identification and Documentation:· Greet patients and visitors courteously and professionally.· Accurately identify patients in the Master Patient Index to reduce erroneous duplicate medical records, maintaining a 98% accuracy rate in medical record creation.· Update demographics per legal identification.· Verify the information on armbands before placing them on patients.· Explain all required documents verbally, obtain signatures appropriately, and document any inability to obtain signatures correctly, including immediate scanning into EMR, per process.· Process all ‘unable to sign’ consents per process, including following legal algorithms to research and communicate with patient contacts to obtain appropriate surrogate; escalate to next steps (Care Management) when unable to find surrogate. 2. Patient Registration and Insurance Verification:· Conduct face-to-face interviews to accurately obtain and process patient demographic and financial information, maintaining a minimum accuracy rate of 97% for error-free registrations.· Process and act on Real-Time Eligibility (RTE) messages, including adding, terminating, and correcting coverages.· Identify all true self-pay patients accurately and forward to Medicaid eligibility and application staff, ensuring only true self-pay patients are screened.· Scan all required documents into patient records and place HAR notes on accounts when necessary.· Identify and resolve insurance verification issues, informing patients of available options, including financial assistance. 3. Regulatory Compliance and Customer Service:· Ensure all patients receive necessary regulatory information and enter appropriate documentation in the EMR (e.g., HIPAA, Patient Rights Brochure, IMM, NOOS, ABN, etc.).· Explain hospital policies, procedures, and financial responsibilities to patients and their families, providing...