Hospital Corporation of America Launches Healthcare Coding Program

Challenge

GRM recently developed a dynamic healthcare patient coding solution for Hospital Corporation of America–a national healthcare organization with over 150 hospital facilities, over 100 surgery centers, close to 200,000 employees and a network that spans throughout the United States and England. Records from these practices arrive at the company’s main offices via fax of through the mail. Upon receipt, documents are compiled and reviewed to make certain all of the necessary information has been received. Coding is then assigned to internal employees or outside contract coders, who receive their assignments based on medical specialty expertise.

What prompted GRM’s involvement were a number of growing challenges within the healthcare organization’s in-place coding process. They included a heavy reliance on the manual handling of paper and frequently receiving patient paperwork that was incomplete. These issues led to a high incidence of information error, process interruption and lengthy delays that negatively impacted productivity and overhead costs. Errors and incomplete records required representatives of the healthcare organization to frequently contact physician practices multiple times to resolve discrepancies. This, combined with the sheer volume of claims (several hundred per week) only aggravated the delays and contributed to a growing backlog in coding, which in turn translated into longer wait times for physician practices to be paid.

Solution

GRM and HCA launched a test pilot program for 15 practices, which took only two weeks to implement. Using electronic forms, GRM created a digital claim submission process that could be easily accessed and completed through the GRM Online Record Center–a flexible, Cloud-based, digital repository. This system enabled the capture and accounting of all necessary physical information on the very first attempt. It also ensured the electronic attaching and archiving of any required paperwork (whether physical or residing on a computer or other digital device) through Kofax scanning and file uploads.

HCA healthcare coding program

Implementation

Under this program, a digital information package is created for each patient encounter that includes a kind of cover sheet listing and summarizing the contents. A workflow is also initiated that only allows the submission of a claim to the company when all of the necessary claim information is included. This places the accountability for information quality control and delays in processing on the practice, which would not be in line to receive payment until all claim information is provided accurately. It also makes the workflow process, which is based on the type of patient encounter, simpler and more streamlined. As a result, claims are coded and processed much sooner. Hospital Corporation of America was able to cut processing costs, eliminate bottlenecks and make their payment processes much more efficient.

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