Long-term healthcare providers face a myriad of issues with prospective patients, often pushing insurance verification down to the bottom of the list. A new software solution aims to make that process a lot easier for everyone involved.
Patient Placement Systems, an Atlanta-based provider of software and services for continuing care providers, has added instant insurance verification to its PatientPlacement.com Referral Management System, a Web-based software suite designed to automate each step of the admissions and intake process for continuing care providers, including skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies and hospices. The new tool allows administrators to instantly confirm a prospective patient's eligibility for Medicare, Medicaid or commercial insurance coverage.
"We heard a recurring request from our continuing care customers to help simplify and speed up insurance verification," said Eric Christ, PPS' president, in a press release. "By integrating an instant insurance check with the workflow, document management, communications and tracking tools already in the Referral Management System, we give providers the most streamlined, efficient way possible to confirm coverage and expedite referral approval."
PPS leverages McKesson's RelayHealth network to connect with more than 430 payers, including Medicare, Medicaid, Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, CIGNA, Humana, TRICARE and United Healthcare. In about 3-5 seconds, and using patient information already contained in the system, the PatientPlacement.com solution determines insurance eligibility and files it with the patient's records.
"The insurance verification feature is so valuable for us that, by itself, it is worth the monthly subscription fee for the entire system," said Marilyn Guitreau, executive assistant for the Belle Maison Nursing Home in Hammond, La., which has been using PPS software for years. "The service is fast, simple and saves us a tremendous amount of time and effort on tasks that used to slow down our admissions process and responsiveness."