By Kari Kemper, Provider Advantage
Same child, different hospital. Totally different registration experience.
My youngest son had a scheduled procedure done this week at our local Children's hospital. This was an outpatient stay.
As you may recall, I have been through healthcare registration experiences before, duly noted in this post, I Have Issues.
Now, when we arrived in Registration, we were greeted by a lovely woman, who clearly knows her job, and presents a level of professional compassion. As my husband and I sit to register our son, my husband is pointing out the different "fun" kid items in the room, clearly trying to distract my son from what is about to happen. I am, on the other hand, watching Edna very closely to see how she actually registers a patient.
She asked me to recite my phone number and address. Yes! I had to recite it vs. giving her a nod of my head signalling that what she said to me was correct.
Then, she said, "Your co-pay is $350."
I was overjoyed. My husband was not.
He just looked at her.
She looked back at him stating that the hospital does take personal checks, VISA and MasterCard.
He asked if he could get a bill, however she responded that they prefer to collect payment upfront.
I looked at my husband in confusion. Has he not been listening to me all these years as I wax poetic about revenue cycle management? Does he not work for the hospital mentioned in my previous post and therefore was subject to my criticism that they would not take my money when I offered it to them willingly?
So, I proceeded to tell my husband that on average, it costs a hospital $25 to bill a patient ONCE. Edna looked at me and said,
"You got it. And most patients do not realize this fact. It is expensive to bill a patient."
As we left Registration, I questioned my husband as to why he wanted a bill, and he said,
"I know the hospital won't do anything. I can wait until I receive the third bill before I pay."
I was shocked to hear that my husband does this.
He continued, "This way I can keep the money in my bank account longer. Why hand it over when I am not being forced to do so? Plus, I will continue to receive other bills for the same procedure - lab fees, physician fees, hospital and supply fees - I am not getting one clear document from the very beginning. I can wait because I can."
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