Helena, Mont.-based St. Peter's Health is still facing billing issues nearly a year after it launched a program to streamline payment processes, KTVH reports.
Here are five things to know about the billing problems.
1. St. Peter's rolled out billing upgrades in January of this year. The changes aimed to redesign billing statements, revamp the hospital's patient call center contract, install address verification technology, develop an online payment portal and add financial counselors.
2. However, billing issues persisted. St. Peter's Health CEO Wade Johnson told KTVH "the problem is deep. It goes all the way down into the IT infrastructure that we have for our billing processes."
3. Mr. Johnson explained the hospital's billing software programs are incompatible. "It's like an Apple and a Microsoft product trying to talk to each other," he said.
4. St. Peter's will continue efforts to improve its billing as part of a hospitalwide transformation beginning next month. The hospital also plans a follow-up patient survey in February, and may explore other customer service solutions if patience experience scores do not improve.
5. St. Peter's projects its billing system revamp could take at least another year to complete, according to the report.
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