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» A magazine for and about Oregon Community Hospitals.
Patient-Focused Care: PeaceHealth Enhances its Financial Assistance CE Program
Beginning July 1,
PeaceHealth
—which operates four
hospitals in Oregon—began offering an enhanced Patient
Financial Assistance program, including a streamlined
Financial Assistance application, additional access for
patients to resources and information, and updated billing
and collections procedures.
These changes are part of the ongoing work PeaceHealth is
doing to provide the best patient experience and highest
community benefit possible. Much of this work is based
on information gathered as part of their Community
Health Needs Assessment, conducted in collaboration with
multiple community partners.
These changes include:
•
Enhancements that ensure that the amounts
charged for emergency or other medically necessary
care provided to individuals eligible for assistance
are not more than the amounts generally billed to
individuals who have insurance covering such care.
•
Postponement of certain collections on patients who
have applied for financial assistance.
•
Standardization of collection practices.
PeaceHealth also added content to its Financial
Assistance website to better serve patient’s needs,
including:
•
Policies and procedures for financial assistance,
and for patient billing and collections (translated in
the top five languages in its service areas: Russian,
Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, and Spanish).
•
A plain language summary of PeaceHealth’s Financial
Assistance program.
•
Identification of providers that do and don’t follow
the PeaceHealth Financial Assistance program.
Public notices promoting the availability of the Financial
Assistance program are displayed prominently in high-
traffic areas like the Emergency Department and lobbies.
It is also be available in hard copy on request. And
community partners have been enlisted to help raise
awareness of these changes.
The Informed Patient continued
Hospital Voice,
a publication for and about Oregon’s
58 community hospitals, is published two times a year
by the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health
Systems (OAHHS), 4000 Kruse Way Pl, Ste 2-100, Lake
Oswego, Oregon 97035, 503-636-2204.
If you are interested in advertising,
please contact
Nicole at 503-445-2233. Advertisements do not imply
endorsement by OAHHS.
If you would like to subscribe to this magazine,
please visit our website at
www.oahhs.organd click
on ‘Hospital Voice, Subscribe Today’, or call us at
503-636-2204.
H
ospital Voice
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Winter/Spring
2011
Amagazine forandabout
OregonCommunityHospitals
Amagazine forandabout
Oregon
Community
Hospitals
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