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Features
nTelagent continues to lead the market with our Retail Application for Healthcare. Our product features allow healthcare service providers to “check off” all the important tasks on their point-of-service to-do lists – offering a truly one-stop solution.
Following are some of the features we’re especially excited about, because they make the lives of healthcare service provider staff much easier – while improving the patient experience at the same time.
Identity and Address Verification
Errors in patient data can lead to returned statements and bills and an increase in denied claims, resulting in lower collections rates and more bad debt. According to a recent nTelagent study, over 30% of bad debt write-offs occur due to unavailable patient data, revealing that adequate personal information is often not collected or verified pre-registration or at the point of service. Our Retail Application provides a risk-free approach to verifying patient information, using only a person’s name and address. Instead of using an individual’s credit score, nTelagent’s system incorporates in-depth demographic information to help healthcare service providers arrive at a more accurate picture of patient financial responsibilities. Our solution compares a patient’s biographical data with nTelagent’s proprietary database, providing healthcare service providers with instant, actionable information and interactive scripting. Verification of a patient’s identity, as well as his or her capacity to pay for services, is then given to patient access staff in a matter of seconds, with no need for the paper-based proofs of identity of yesterday.
Real-Time Predictive Modeling for Assessing Patients’ Ability to Pay
Instead of simply using an individual’s credit score, nTelagent’s point-of-service solution incorporates in-depth demographic information to help healthcare service providers arrive at a more accurate picture of patient financial responsibilities at the point of service. The demographic data used for patient evaluation in nTelagent’s algorithm includes a patient’s household income, real estate value, number of people in the household, homeowner versus renter status and other data. (nTelagent does not use a credit score to determine an individual’s ability to pay simply because our algorithm can be more accurate and does not hold the liability – such as identity theft – that goes along with obtaining credit scores.)
Real-Time, Interactive Scripting for Patient Access Staff
As patient access staff members’ organizational structure and areas of responsibility continue to evolve, the information at their fingertips should do the same. Similar to applications used in the retail industry at the point of sale, nTelagent’s web-based Retail Application for Healthcare tells healthcare registrars and financial counselors exactly what to do and what to say to each patient at the point of service regarding financial responsibilities. Our solution streamlines, simplifies and clarifies the patient access staff’s responsibilities. Producing customized, scripted information based on a service provider’s own business rules, the system intuitively guides patient access staff through complex revenue cycle processes, such as eligibility verification, demographic validation, payment assessment, charity care qualification and pricing transparency – all at their desktops. The system effectively supports registrars and financial counselors, which results in both an improved work environment and revenue cycle process.
Automated Screening and Processing for Charity Care and Social Services Assistance
Our solution allows healthcare providers to be advocates for truly needy patients, helping them to obtain all possible assistance in covering their healthcare costs. With the Retail Application, service providers can automate their charity care screening and documentation policies consistently through an online interface at point of service – ensuring that patient financial accounting is handled appropriately and in a non-discriminatory manner. Truly needy patients are identified, and standardized policies and procedures eliminate any guesswork in the handling of financial accounts and the reporting of charity care numbers. Within a short amount of time, the provider learns whether or not a self-pay patient qualifies for eligibility programs. The system can also be set up to ensure appropriate documentation is obtained and completed by the patient. (According to an nTelagent study of over 40 providers, 17% of patient accounts that were written off as bad debt had been classified as having low household income and/or low net worth. This indicates that they could have been evaluated for government assistance programs or charity care processing, but were not.)
Automated Price Transparency and Discounting Information
After implementation of nTelagent's Retail Application for Healthcare, service providers can provide price transparency for a facility’s most common services. In addition, patient access staff can offer discounts at the point of service, taking into account a patient's current capacity to pay, total account balance and type of service. This enables fairness and consistency in the discounting process, as well as the complete, accurate documentation and delivery of financial policies.
Next-Generation Insurance Verification Tool
Tired of printing out cumbersome 15-page reports to try to determine benefits? nTelagent’s insurance verification tool is an integrated solution for hospitals and other providers, combining insurance information with a patient’s demographic information and a provider’s unique business policies – all in real-time. The result is a clear, accurate explanation of the patient’s benefits and what is owed at point of service (i.e., co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance), delivered right to the staff member’s computer screen.
nTelagent's Insurance Eligibility Payors (PDF)
Healthcare Cash Register (Payment Processing Tool)
nTelagent’s online payment processing feature allows providers to accept patient payments in the form of cash, check, credit card and debit card. They can either post a one-time payment or negotiate and set up payment terms with the patient – resulting in recurring payments that are automatically posted to the patient’s account over a set number of months, using the Automatic Clearing House (ACH). With nTelagent’s healthcare cash register, providers can:
- Accept online payments via credit/debit card and e-Check securely and effectively
- Post one-time or recurring payments to an account
- Receive instant notification of transaction success or failure
- Print receipts for successful postings or historical payments
- Increase ongoing collections of accounts receivable
- View real-time cash-collected report, showing actual payment-collected amounts
Red Flag Compliance Tool
Our Red Flag compliance tool helps you to safeguard your patients’ identity and protect yourself from fraudulent activity. We make Red Flag compliance easy, cost-effective and pain-free. How? Our point-of-service solution:
- Helps providers to lessen the risk of identity theft from the outset. Unlike some systems, nTelagent does not collect or house vulnerable data elements such as credit reports/scores, Social Security numbers or dates of birth to verify patient identity or to determine patient capacity to pay.
- Allows patient access staff to immediately verify and validate patient identity at the point of service, reducing the risk of fraudulent activity.
- Automatically alerts the registrar or financial counselor to any Red Flags regarding patient identity or fraudulent activity.
- Provides online reports of patients who have fallen into the Red Flag category.
Real-Time Point-of-Service Reporting Director With Advanced Cash Collected Report
Part of nTelagent’s Retail Application for Healthcare, our new Real-Time Point-of-Service Reporting Director allows healthcare service providers to monitor every patient-due amount on-demand and in real time. Healthcare financial managers can track how individual staff members are using nTelagent’s system, and which ones need further training. Available reports include:
- Cash Collected Report: This advanced feature provides an up-to-the-minute review of dollars collected by area, registrar and account. The report shows the individual’s actual capacity to pay, and what “should have been” collected by the patient access staff member.
- Red Flags Compliance Report: In keeping with the FTC’s requirement that “Red Flags” alerts be monitored, this report displays a listing of all patients registered when an alert has appeared. This can also be used to determine misuse in the emergency department or other areas, such as when individuals give false information at the point of service.
- Established Payment Terms Report: With this item, healthcare providers’ business offices can review all the patient accounts that have been set up with payment plan arrangements.
- Insurance Verification Report: Providers learn whether insurance is being verified before being accepted, thereby reducing denials on accounts where insurance has been terminated or benefits are exhausted.
- Capacity to Pay Report: With this report, providers can understand their patient market and their true capacity to pay based on current demographic data. This report shows the number of registrations under each capacity-to-pay category.
- Forecast Receivables Report: This offers a six-month analysis of upcoming payments that have been established through payment terms in nTelagent’s Retail Application.
- Patient Access by User Report: With this report, management can monitor usage of nTelagent’s system by user for compliance.
- SSC Status Report: This feature shows the status of accounts that have been placed with nTelagent business partner SSC (Social Service Coordinators) for potential eligibility for local, state or federal programs.
Desktop Forms Packet
Our forms packet provides standardized and customized forms for use in patient registration that registrars and financial counselors can print out at their desktop. Primary benefits include:
- Automatic population of name, address and other critical contact information, allowing for verification of information and reduced errors
- Automatic generation of forms at the point of service; capability to print out immediately and conveniently
- Opportunity to obtain signatures for payment arrangements at the point of service, ensuring patients are aware of financial responsibilities from the start
- Ability to begin process of form completion at point of service, such as charity documents and/or government program eligibility
