In this week’s episode, the Solutions Guy talks to Jeff White. The two of them discuss what the traditional check-in process is like for front desk staff and then compare it to the check-in process with Clearwave’s patient access technology, demonstrating how Clearwave helps reduces stress for staff and patients
Transcript:
Eric: Recently, I spoke to
Dr. Hafner, the CEO of Vascular Surgical Associates. And Dr. Hafner told me
that Clearwave greatly reduces the stress on his patients because Clearwave
allows his staff to explain the benefits to the patients, and so they’re aware
of their out-of-pocket responsibility. In addition, Clearwave reduces the
stress on staff. They used to live in a world where they had to manually verify
insurance, which was a complicated, convoluted process. But now that they have
Clearwave, our speed and efficiency in the eligibility verification process
makes things much simpler across the board. And today, we’re gonna speak to
someone who can tell us what this all really mean.
Jeff: Hey, Eric. What’s up?
Eric: I’d like you to help me solve a healthcare
math problem.
Jeff: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s go.
Eric: Prior to joining Clearwave, Jeff White
was the front office supervisor at a very busy multi-specialty clinic. Jeff,
would you mind walking me through a typical registration process?
Jeff: Yeah, absolutely, Eric. So typically,
you know, it’s about a three step process, right? Patient comes through the
front door, they go up to the front desk, they write their name down on a
clipboard. Front desk staff is answering phone calls, doing office duties, and
assisting other patients, right? So, typically, we’d say, I’d estimate it takes
about five minutes for, you know, the front desk to have their initial
interaction with the patient, right?
Eric: Okay.
Jeff: So we’re at five minutes. After that, I
call, “Miss Doe, Miss Doe, would you mind coming up here please? I need to
get your driver’s license and insurance card. Hey, also, here’s a clipboard
full of paperwork for you to fill out. It’s about five pages. Would you mind
doing that for me while I’m verifying your eligibility and benefits? Thank you,
Miss Doe. Please have a seat.”
So, you know, I’d ask her to go have a seat,
and we’d go through this whole process where I’d log into, you know, her
insurance portal. For this example, Miss Doe has Medicaid. So I’m logging into
the Medicaid portal, and I see that Miss Doe has a managed care plan, right?
“Miss Doe, excuse me, would you mind
coming back up here for one minute? I’m sorry, I hate to interrupt you while
you’re filling out your paperwork. Thank you, Miss Doe. I see that you have a
managed care policy. Do you have the insurance card with you? You do? Thanks.
Great.”
So then I go back, I scan all her insurance
cards in and her driver’s license, as well. From there, then, you know, I
finish verifying all the benefits on the back end. I call Miss Doe back
up.
“Miss Doe, are you through filling out
your paperwork? Great.”
Okay. All this is probably about a 10 minute
process, right? So we’re up to 15 minutes. From there, then I’ve gotta manually
scan in all that information, as well. So I’m scanning in all her paperwork,
and then I gotta go track down the nurse and let her know, “Hey, Miss Doe
is ready to be seen.” So let’s estimate, let’s say I’m on my A game that
day, it takes me about three minutes to do that. So I’m already up to a total
check-in time of 18 minutes.
Eric: That’s great. Very helpful, thank you,
Jeff. And actually, that example ties in very well with the Forrester study,
which says it takes between 15 and 25 minutes for patients to be seen by a
clinician. With Clearwave, all of that would have been done in the first step,
in less than three minutes. We would have identified that Miss Doe has a
Medicaid plan. We would have also identified that she had a managed care plan,
and this is why Clearwave reduces stress for staff and patients. Thank you,
Jeff, for helping me solve this healthcare math problem.
Jeff: Absolutely, Eric.