Patient Registrar

Mercyhealth Patient Registrars are responsible for patient registration duties at Mercyhealth Hospital locations. Patient Registrars will demonstrate behavior that reflects the hospital's mission, vision, and values. Patient Registrars will greet patients or family members in the various hospital settings and assist them in answering any questions or concerns they may have in person or over the phone. This position is fast paced (sometimes chaotic) and you will be the person patients and our clinical care teams rely on to get patients entered or checked in within the electronic medical record to get care started. As Mercyhealth Patient Registrars we are part of Revenue Cycle and are responsible for accurate registrations, obtaining insurance coverage, educating our patients on their financial responsibilities, and collecting applicable payments. To thrive in this job, you will need to be confident with technology and typing; however, you do not need to have any previous experience or knowledge in healthcare. Since some shifts are in an Emergency Department, you will need to be prepared to see serious illness and injuries. This position requires weekend and holiday rotations.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Engages in positive interactions; demonstrate friendliness by smiling and making eye contact when greeting all patients, visitors and customers. Provide helpful assistance in anticipating and responding to the needs of our patients, visitors and customers and staying calm under pressure to deal effectively with difficult people.
• Participates in team building activities, continuous quality improvement activities and educational experiences in support of departmental or Mercyhealth initiatives.
• Provides shadowing and training to new partners.
• Uses good judgment in highly emotional and demanding situations.
• Arrives patient to the ER and Urgent Care.
• ISigns in or checking in hospital outpatient visits.
• Identifies patients in need of immediate care by visual assessment at time of registration, prioritizes patient registration by severity of complaint, and monitors waiting area for changing patient conditions and alerts triage RN to the need to re-evaluate patients.
• Admits all surgical and direct admit patients.
• Schedules and checks in hospital outpatient lab patients.
• Identifies and selects patients using department required patient identifiers to select correct electronic medical record. Thus, reducing the chance for privacy, medical or duplicate medical record errors.
• Enters patient's complaints/symptoms and them in the appropriate order based on severity of symptoms. Also completing all other required arrival information with the electronic medical record.
• Generates patient arm band, face sheet, and patient labels.
• Verifies information before quickly applying patient armband during traumas or other chaotic situations.
• Gathers and enters into EPIC all necessary demographic, guarantors, and billing information from patients/family.
• Obtains necessary signatures and documents for inpatient and outpatient registrations.
• Verifies patient insurance information and updates insurance information as appropriate.
• Identifies patients in the ER that have an out of network insurance and provides this information to the appropriate ED partners. Completes our out of network paperwork and adds an account note documenting conversation with staff and that paperwork was completed.
• Identifies patients without insurance and works closely with patient financial counselors to help facilitate self-pay services for patients without insurance.
• Identifies appropriate primary/secondary payees.
• Completes MSPQ as required for Medicare patients.
• Collects all applicable co-pay's, self-pay payments, and in some cases pre-payment for services.
• Assists with coordination of patients into the appropriate unit.
• Provides accurate information and timely updates to patients, visitors, and customers.
• Assists other departments at various hospital locations to notify when patients have arrived.
• Assists outside EMS/EMT agencies to arrive patients to the facility and provide paperwork for billing purposes.
• Performs Pre-admission functions for patients.
• Performs Pre-registration functions for patients.
• Upon admission provides patients with admission information such as the VIP Folder as needed.
• Obtains signatures for Medicare forms as required for admission within required timeframe.
• Properly secures and returns all patient valuables in accordance with Mercyhealth policy.
• Assists hospital staff to facilitate patient care during periods of EPIC Downtime or during disaster mode.
• Assists nursing staff to provide transportation vouchers and payment for transportation services for patients.
• Maintains an accurate cash drawer.
• Closes and balances cash drawer at the end of each shift in compliance with our cash handling policy.
• Manages work queues to resolve registration errors thus allowing patient bills to process in a timely manner.
• Assesses and determines situations requiring an interpreter and when to use interpreter services effectively.
• Logs in, answers, returns, and transfers all incoming telephone inquiries. Additionally makes outbound calls as needed.
• Monitors security cameras and door entry systems in a polite manner and communicates information to the appropriate staff, patient or visitor.
• Addresses questions or concerns promptly or identifies appropriate resource to do so.
• Uses effective service recovery skills to solve problems or service breakdowns when they occur.
• Remains flexible and reliable to react to frequent changes in duties and volume of work to meet the needs of our many locations and patients.
• Manages work schedule efficiently to ensure all tasks and assignments are completed on time.
• Presents a friendly, approachable, professional demeanor and appearance.
• Completes travel screening questionnaire for every patient, visitor and customer that enters the facility.
• Tracks patient's visitors as needed and appropriate based on current hospital guidelines.
• Provides directions, helps or escorts patients/visitors to the correct area.
• Demonstrates teamwork by helping co-workers in and across departments.
• Communicates appropriately, clearly, and timely to leadership team, charge nurse, physician and partners.
• Uses excellent judgment to notify leadership team of all unusual occurrence or situations requiring leadership team attention or action.
• Uses organizational and departmental resources efficiently.
• Follows local, state, and federal healthcare regulations.
• Performs light duty cleaning or registration, lobby and waiting room areas.
• Completes all required educational courses as assigned by leadership.
• May be required to work alternate shifts, weekends, and overtime during peak periods.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE

• Graduate of high school or equivalent preferred
• One to two years customer service experience required
• Knowledge of third-party payors preferred
• Medical terminology preferred

CERTIFICATION/LICENSURE

N/A

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Self-starter with a willingness to try new ideas.
• Positive can-do attitude coupled with a sense of urgency.
• Knowledge of computer systems, to include navigation, typing, and data entry.
• Detail oriented.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Excellent problem solving, conflict management, time management and stress management skills in highly emotional and demanding situations.
• Ability to use good judgment and utilize independent decision-making skills.
• EPIC knowledge preferred but not required.
• Able to work independently, as well as collaborate in a team environment.
• Interpersonal skills to interact with patients to obtain needed information to communicate to partners and providers.

PAY RANGE:

Mercyhealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

Mercyhealth offers competitive pay and benefits, including retirement, time off, on-demand pay, access to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and more. Clickhere for more details.

At Mercyhealth, we don't simply hire people, we empower employee-partners who are passionate about making lives better. As an integrated health system, we deliver exceptional, coordinated across seven hospitals, 85 primary and specialty clinics, and a team of over 7,500 professionals serving northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

Mercyhealth has been nationally recognized for our commitment to our people and culture, including:

• #1 in the nation on AARP's Best Employers for Workers Over 50

• One of Working Mother magazine's 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers

• A Top 50 Company and Top 10 Nonprofit for Executive Women