HVCH takes steps to improve patient billing

LOGAN — Billing for healthcare services can be complex and hard for patients to understand. Hocking Valley Community Hospital has taken steps to simplify and consolidate its medical records and billing systems for the benefit of patients and caregivers.

"After patients seek healthcare services and receive treatment, healthcare providers request payment from the patient's insurance company and/or the patient depending on coverage. Insurance coverage is determined by service, medical necessity, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance percentages," HVCH Director of Revenue Cycle Heather Smith explained. "After the insurance company has processed their part, the hospital sends a billing statement for what insurance concludes is the patient's responsibility. This process can leave patients confused and frustrated when receiving several bills from the same hospital."HVCH switched to the EPIC medical records system in 2018. With EPIC, each patient is assigned a guarantor number, so all hospital visits and services are listed in one billing statement instead of multiple. Even patients who make multiple trips to the hospital to treat extended illnesses can see all their active bills in one statement. With the previous system, patients would have received individual bills and payment reminders for each visit. Further, all the hospital provider services are consolidated into one payment statement. Other services by non-hospital providers may still be billed separately.

"We have now come even further with our patient billing as HVCH MyChart was recently enhanced, and patients can now view and pay their hospital and Hocking Valley Medical Group physician bills online using a credit/debit card or Apple Pay," Smith said. "We are currently working on paperless billing, setting up payment plans and other features within MyChart."

Once logged into your MyChart account, click on the Billing option to get started. Credit card payments can be made directly and securely through MyChart to any of your hospital or physician office accounts that you have with HVCH or HVMG.

The hospital offers a 15% prompt pay discount that is automatically applied to the balance if a bill is paid within 30 days. The hospital also offers a financial assistance program to all patients making up to 350% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and Hocking County Residents up to 400% of the FPL. This does not affect eligibility for the Prompt Pay Discount.

To learn more about managing your healthcare and the benefits of signing up for MyChart, please visit www.hvch.org. If you have billing questions, call 740-385-5276.

Hocking Valley is a community non-profit hospital with an emergency department, urgent care and a wide variety of clinical, specialty and outpatient services. For more information, contact the Community Relations office at (740) 380-8336.

Submitted by Hocking Valley Community Hospital