EPISODE SUMMARY

You’ve mastered the day-to-day tasks of patient registration, but how do you know if your processes are actually winning? In this episode, Jeremy and Kathryn Zug zoom in on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) space within the Patient Registration territory of The RCM Game Board. They break down how practice owners can stop being reactive and start being proactive by moving beyond the day-to-day desk tasks and tracking essential data.

This deep dive into measuring your practice's success reveals the vital metrics that transform patient frustrations into a smooth, positive first impression and ensure your practice's financial health is aligned with your goals. Learn why the patient intake process, if not optimized, can create costly bottlenecks, delay cash flow, and put your practice at risk. It's time to put your data to work and turn those claim denials into deposits.

In this episode, we cover the critical KPIs for Patient Registration:

Provider Utilization: This goal-setting metric measures the percentage of a provider's desired available time filled with appointments and tells you how effectively your scheduling and flow processes are working. A low rate is a huge red flag for untapped revenue.

Missed or Canceled Appointments: Learn how to measure this rate and what a high number indicates about poor patient communication, unclear expectations, or an inconvenient scheduling process.

Form Handling Audit Pass Rate: This crucial HIPAA compliance metric directly impacts your revenue cycle! Learn why intake errors are a leading cause of rejections and denials and how to track the accuracy of your patient data and forms.

Patient Satisfaction Survey Analysis: Turn subjective patient feedback into actionable data to identify friction points that cause patients to drop out of care and ensure your first impression is a powerful one.

KEYWORDS

Revenue Cycle Management, RCM, Patient Registration, KPIs, Provider Utilization, Practice Management, Medical Billing, Insurance Billing, Healthcare Business, Form Handling Audit, HIPAA Compliance, Practice Growth

TAKEAWAYS

Move Beyond the Day-to-Day: Get a clear picture of your practice's health by conducting a monthly data pull on key metrics to identify bottlenecks, improve patient retention, and increase revenue.

Utilization is Goal-Driven: Provider Utilization is a goal-setting activity that measures your scheduling's effectiveness against the provider's desired hours, not just their physical availability. Low utilization can be a sign of a bad patient intake process, a provider with overly specific preferences, or ineffective scheduling.

Cancellations Are a Red Flag: A high rate of missed or canceled appointments is a big red flag that you must look at weekly. To correct this, run a test of your patient registration process (a "ghost shopper" test) and implement a solid wait list.

HIPAA & Claim Accuracy Are Linked: The Form Handling Audit Pass Rate is vital because intake errors and incomplete forms are a leading cause of rejections and denials—which delays cash flow and puts your practice at risk of HIPAA violations.

Ask Actionable Questions: When designing patient satisfaction surveys, the more granular the questions, the better. Ask questions directly linked to changes you are willing to make to find patterns and focus your improvements.

KPIs Create a Predictive System: A comprehensive KPI dashboard aggregates your metrics for a bird's eye view, helping you move from a chaotic, reactive process into a predictable, proactive system that ensures your practice is running the thing, not the other way around.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction: Mastering the Patient Registration Metrics

02:09 From Tasks to Insights: Evaluating Patient Registration

04:28 Provider Utilization and Practice Health

06:42 Pulling and Analyzing Utilization Metrics

08:43 When Utilization Drops: Finding the Root Cause

14:09 Tracking Missed and Canceled Appointments

20:08 Form Handling Audit: Protecting Compliance and Cash Flow

25:05 Turning Feedback into Action: Patient Satisfaction Surveys

30:03 Dashboard Overview: Turning Metrics into Insight

32:09 Case Study: Using KPIs to Improve Patient Registration

33:59 Conclusion: Moving Forward with Data-Driven Decisions

RESOURCES

Today Sponsors: Blueprint

Learn More About The Claim Game: Visit practicesol.com/podcast

The Hourglass Learning Hub: Dive deeper into RCM best practices and downloadable tools mentioned in this episode, like the various checklists and templates, by visiting The Hourglass Learning Hub.

Our Blog: Explore years of educational articles on billing and practice management at Practice Solutions Blog.

Book: For a comprehensive guide on navigating insurance, grab your copy of Insurance Billing Basics: Steps for Therapists to Successfully Take Insurance.

Images: Patient Registration KPI Dashboard

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