JCAHO does require information on each patient...preop diagnosis, specimen site, etc. Yes, these need to be acquired prior to a diagnosis being submitted. Certain clinical information is critical for diagnosis. For JCAHO compliance, phone calls to the doctor's office should provide you with appropriate clinical data. Unlabelled specimens are returned to doctor's offices.
Insurance information is obviously required for billing purposes. We require the doctor's offices to supply that for us as well.
Between Clinical data and insurance we are on the phone quite a bit to doctor's offices (not to the patients.)
I can't help but wonder, though if what you are referring to is a new regulation dumped on us by medicare (formerly known as HCFA.) This is a questionaire called an MSP, that Medicare patients need to fill out to make medicare feel like it is being appropriately billed (as opposed to workman's comp, other insurances, etc.) the problem lies not so much with patients that are seen by the hospital, but by non-patients. Medicare is still requiring that non-patients also fill out the form and they are requiring this of the hospitals. The questionaire is one that is directly asked of the patient, so this would require phone calls on all Medicare specimens...and that would be a night mare. We are fighting this, but so far, we have not heard of any changes. Be aware though, that this is not a JCAHO issue...it is a medicare reimbursement issue.
Barb Davies
Memorial Hospital
Colorado Springs, CO
Paula Wilder <histo20@hotmail.com>
Paula Wilder <histo20@hotmail.com>
05/19/2002 07:33 AM
To: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
cc:
Subject: Patient Registration
Hello everyone!
We were recently told that in order to register Medicare patients, we had to
actually contact each patient for all the necessary information. When we
asked questions about specimens, etc. no one had an answer for us. JCAHO is
coming to our institution in July. We were told that we were not in
compliance at this time and that next week sometime we will need to register
patients differently. I just can't imagine contacting each and every
patient. Does anyone else have this compliance issue? Any input would be
very greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!
Paula Wilder
St. Joseph Medical Center
Towson, MD.
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