Affordability

Co-Pays: Make Collections Easier, Just Ask

  • Training your team about the co-pay collection process and how to ask for money
  • Educating about the importance of co-pays and the availability of financial assistance
  • Hiring a financial counselor, and making them both visible and available to patients

What can your team do to get needed trainings from other departments? What else could your team do to see how your work fits into KP's "big picture"? 

 

The EZ Option of Cash Co-Pays

  • Training staff on how to handle cash, and tracking payments
  • Getting a lock box to safely store cash payments, and reviewing data at monthly meetings
  • Letting other teams know that cash payments are possible

What can your team do to look at the care experience though the eyes of the patient? What else could your team do to make going to the doctor easier for the member? 

 

Connecting the Dots With Popular Education

Submitted by Laureen Lazarovici on Wed, 10/26/2016 - 00:51
Region
Southern California
Keywords
education
Topics
Workforce of the Future
Role
Frontline Workers
Taxonomy upgrade extras
lmpartnership.org
Request Number
sty_popular_education
Long Teaser

The LMP is using popular education strategies to improve business and economic literacy on the front line. Staff at the Woodland Hills Medical Center describe how the training brings potentially dry subjects to life.

Communicator (reporters)
Laureen Lazarovici
Photos & Artwork (reporters)
UBT consultants work together dividing beans into cups to illustrate wealth inequality in the U.S. as part of a workshop by United for a Fair Economy using popular education techniques
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Highlighted stories and tools (reporters)
Business and Economic Literacy

Because more health care expense is shifting to the patient, it's important to know what you can offer. As they spend more, they expect more.

Learn where Kaiser Permanente dollars come from—and where they go—so you can provide the best customer service.

Business Literacy Training Glossary
Status
Released
Tracking (editors)
Flash
Story content (editors)
Headline (for informational purposes only)
Connecting the dots with popular education
Deck
LMP course brings business, economic issues to life
Byline
Laureen Lazarovici
Story body part 1

Receptionist Sam Eckstein encourages his co-workers at the Woodland Hills Medical Center lab not only to meet—but to exceed—patient expectations of excellent service. To back up his coaching, he’s using the knowledge he gained in a new LMP course on business and economic literacy.

During the course, Eckstein and about a dozen other workers and managers learned about the rising cost of health insurance in the United States and the trend toward businesses’ shifting more health care costs to employees.

Because patients are paying more, “Their expectations are higher,” says Eckstein, a member of SEIU UHW. “When patients come in without an order [for a lab procedure], we can’t just send them home,” and inconvenience them by making them come back another day, he says. “We have to help meet their needs.”

Eckstein took part in a pilot project to test the Labor Management Partnership’s new approach using popular education techniques to ensure frontline employees and managers have the context and know-how they need to continue improving team performance and keep Kaiser Permanente affordable.

What’s different about popular education?

Popular education turns the old-fashioned schoolroom model of teaching and learning on its head. It is ideally suited to the Labor Management Partnership, which is built on the belief that all employees, managers and physicians bring their expertise and experience to bear on improving service and care at KP. No longer is the teacher or trainer the sole expert in the classroom, there to fill students’ minds with information they passively receive, memorize and repeat.

Instead, popular education taps into participants’ experiences in their communities and workplaces and uses them to generate dialogue. It explores the social and economic context of students’ lives and asks probing questions: What are people happy about? Worried about? Fearful about? Hopeful about? Students are encouraged to analyze that information—and to take action.

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How-To Guide: Do a Waste Walk

Taking a waste walk with your team is a good way to get started on performance improvement.

The first step is to educate your team about the different kinds of waste, using the "8 Types of Waste" tool.

Then follow the step-by-step instructions to complete a walk. Finish by targeting elements of your workflow or workspace that can be streamlined.

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