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4A Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011
Indian Valley Record
About 160 people pack themselves into the Greenville High School library Tuesday, Nov. 8, many to show their concern and support
Several other interested people filled the hallway and a small side room. Photo by Alicia Knadler
Alicia Knadler indifference in some com-There was at least one Nov. 8, board meeting.
Indian Valley Editor munities, interested person in Quincy, The committees give resi-
aknadler@plumasnews.com Recruitment efforts for Lo- reported administrative assis- dents the opportunity to be
, cal Community Advisory tant Patty McCutcheon, and involved before decisions
Articles about possible Committees have not been none for either Chester or are made about school clo-
school closures in local very successful. Portola. sures.
newspapers, paragraphs in There were two applicants in The Plumas Unified SchoolTime is short: less than
school newsletters, emails Indian Valley, where rumors District superintendent two months are left before
and messages -- they all about school closure have been shrugged his shoulders over the board will need recom-
add up to what seems like rampant for decades, the issue during the Tuesday, mendations.
during a meeting of the Plumas
The committees will review
recommendations from dis-
trict administration and the
Facilities Advisory Com-
mittee.
Those who decide they are
interested enough to work for
a few short weeks on a local
committee are urged to sub-
mit a letter of interest to Patty
Unified School District directors.
McCutcheon in the Superin-
tendent's Office, 50 Church St.
in Quincy.
The letter should contain
details of how the person's
personal and/or professional
experience would be benefi-
cial to the board.
Appointments will be .made
during the December meeting.
i
I
ital-wid
cornp
Mona Hill patient financial services audit.
Staff Writer "The one single issue I hear
mhill@plumasnews.com about on a daily basis is
billing," said Chief Executive
Patients of Plumas Dis- Officer Doug Lafferty, who
trict Hospital will soon see commissioned the audit in
much-needed changes to October.
their billing statements. Lafferty admitted the hospi-
That is one of the improve- tal's bills are poorly designed:
ments the district plans in They are not easy to read and
the wake of a just-completed they look very much like a
Serving Greenville & Indian Valley
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r
ms
resolve issues
"The one single issue/.hear
about on a daily basis is billing."
Doug Lafferty, Chief Executive Officer
general ledger. In short, cus-
tomers cannot read their bills
and understand what they
owe.
A new bill format, which
will include a detailed bill for
services, is in the works. The
bill will also provide an ac-
count balance and payment
history by payer, whether in-
surance, self-pay or public
funds.
Lafferty expects the new
bills to be in patients' hands
no later than Feb. 1, 2012.
C omplaints about PDH's
billing practices are legion.
Last spring several Quincy
residents approached Feather
Publishing with details of
billing problems they were
experiencing at PDH.
Complaints included the
lack of consolidated billing, provide the paper with a
This reporter met to discuss billing software.was a. prob-
the anecdotal evidence with lem. "The billing software
Interim CEO Linda Jameson currently in use is about as
and Chief Finance Officer bad as it can be."
John Nadone. As part of the electronic
During the meeting, medical records and comput-
Nadone categorically denied er systems•upgrade project,
billing problems. He said the Eagle i, PDH administrators
hospital was under no obliga- have met with billing staff to
tion to bill insurance compa- develop guidelines and prac-
nies and did so only as a tices for the biUing segment of
courtesy. He expressed skep- the records project.
ticism about complaints of Lafferty declined to release
being sent to collections and the audit, saying the findings
characterized the bonuses as clearly identified individual
incentives, employee's functions. He
Nadone also promised to summarized the audit's find-
ings by saying individual em-
placement with collections "how to read your bill" graph- ployees had a lot of flexibility
M
without warning and a vari- ic. However, he left PDH for in agreeing to terms because
ety of billing errors. Several another job before that hap- policies were not maintained.
complainants were critical of pened. Using the parameters of the
u
the bonuses billing staff re- In addition to the billing electronic records software,
ceived for amounts collected, statements, Lafferty said Lafferty will develop sound
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billing and collections prac-
tices.
In prior years, the collec-
tion policy was to send a flat
percentage of accounts receiv-
able to collections every
month.
Lafferty intends to base
such decisions on factors that
include payment history and
outstanding balance.
In addition, he intends to
meet with the collections
agency to establish guide-
lines, adding, "They repre-
sent me in this community."
Lafferty said failure to re-
view and maintain policies
regularly led to an uneven ap-
plication of billing resolution
services and ultimately landed
some patients in collections.
For example, one com-
plainant would call her ac-
count representative month-
ly. The representative would
decide which account would
be credited with payment,
and not always the oldest one.
Another representative
was alleged to have told a pa-
tient the $50 monthly pay-
ment was insufficient to pay
off the account and sent it to
collections.
Lafferty has also discovered
the charge master -- the line
item master list of services,
products and procedures used
for billing --.has duplications
and pricing errors, which are
being corrected.
He said bill variations for
the same procedure could also
be the result of using a differ-
ent medication or physician.
,I