A preview of the upcoming NAHAM 2018 conference

The National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM) annual conference is the premier patient access educational event, providing the latest information on a variety of topics critical to the important role of patient access services in healthcare. Elevating Patient Access, the NAHAM 44th Annual Conference in Denver May 3-6, 2018, promises to be an exciting event for industry professionals involved in the many aspects of patient identity and access management (IAM). At the 2017 meeting in Dallas, 748 patient access services professionals came together from across the U.S., its territories and Canada to learn, network, explore, and share. Attendance has increased by 31% since the 2014 meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Dynamic interactive pre-conference sessions address a variety of cutting-edge issues, offering a unique platform to discuss and discover innovative solutions addressing IAM, revenue, and other challenging issues. Six Learning Lab Series with more than 20 individual labs touch on topics such as customizing the patient experience, creating patient engagement strategies, leveraging key performance indicators (KPIs) and the ways in which patient access professionals facilitate telehealth services. Keynote presentations from highly regarded speakers and industry-sponsored educational symposia round out the four-day conference.

The important role of patient access specialists

Patient access specialists are typically the first point of contact for patients at hospitals, healthcare facilities, and doctor’s offices. They ensure every patient is properly identified, thereby helping organizations increase patient safety and remain compliant. Any healthcare organization that desires to reduce claims denials must concentrate on access management first, or the front end of the revenue cycle process. Pricing transparency is one of several challenges facing patient access managers as organizations grapple with managed care contracts and a trend to decreasing collections due to higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. NAHAM has developed 34 different KPIs to measure the efficacy of front-end departments and staff across six patient access domains:

  • Collections
  • Conversions
  • Patient experience
  • Process failures
  • Productivity
  • Quality

The right technology helps patient access specialists improve metrics

Having the right technology can help professionals provide stellar and accurate customer service, from check-in and delivery of care through billing. Imprivata PatientSecure is the leading positive patient identification solution for healthcare. Customers who implement this technology realize enhanced productivity while reducing medical errors, improving patient safety, eliminating duplicate and overlaid medical records, protecting against fraud to improve data integrity, reducing denied medical claims, and improving financial outcomes. A core feature is patient experience optimization, an especially salient topic for patient access professionals. It streamlines the patient experience throughout the entire care delivery process, including self-service check-in, patient registration, and point-of-care verification.