Natalie Elliott

Work History

Director Patient Access

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Common Spirit Health)

01.2022 - Current

Oversee the centralized patient access operations serving 56 medical clinics and specialty centers across Western Washington
Operational leadership of 7 leaders and 142 staff members with the Patient Access Department; comply with human resource regulations; consistently assess staffing levels and efficiencies, mentor and provide support to clinic management, establish performance objectives; addresses performance concerns, ensure all state and federal guidelines are adhered to
Lead and engage with 10 professional trainers to develop, manage, facilitate and continually improve system wide patient access training. Including curriculum build and training approach related to: revenue cycle, front-end clinic support, patient access and customer interactions
Executive oversight for resolving system issues to ensure revenue cycle optimization, quality care, and business continuance in accordance with state and federal regulations
Identify, recommend and implement process improvement initiatives (using A3 and Lean methodology) increasing work unit productivity and enhancing service levels, ensuring quality patient centered care and service
Serve as the liaison between clinical operations to ensure integrity and effectiveness of revenue cycle operations, collections, denial management, and staff productivity
Prepares and monitor Patient Access Department operating budget, effectively reducing departmental budget by 15% year over year
Cultivates and maintain positive professional relationships with both internal and external colleagues to address network-wide projects that improve system wide outcomes within patient access and the external healthcare community
Oversee, develop, and implement initiatives and programs impacting the both front end clinic patient access operations, revenue cycle and centralized operations. Continually facilitating performance and process improvements effort to flex with strategic objectives
Direct development and deployment of non-clinical policies and procedures and internal guidelines. Ensuring regulatory compliance, accreditation requirements and consistency with the values of the organization

Director Patient Service Revenue Cycle

Puyallup Tribal Health Authority (PTHA)

01.2018 - 01.2022

Exercise a high degree of analytical, problems solving and team building skills together with judgment and initiative to analyze problematic situations with use of quantitative and diagnostic techniques to positively manage various patient, legal and patient services decisions
Promote effective communications between departments to ensure ongoing education and training in addition to expedited problem resolution
Leadership and coordinated efficiency of all Revenue Cycle departments inclusive of Patient Access, Patient Benefits and Referrals
Oversee and create efficiency, effectiveness related to customer service, budgetary management and process improvements using a high degree of expertise in the complete revenue cycle flow
Collaborate with departmental leadership across a diverse organization to establish, maintain, monitor, demonstrate and modify work standards relevant to standard performance metrics
Add value to organization through the proactive analysis and resolution of challenges with utilization of lean process improvement efforts
Coordinate, manage and facilitate various organizational (internal and external) operational committees.

Director Pre-Service Center

Multicare Care Health System

01.2018 - 01.2019

Oversees Pre-Service Access Services management and front-line staff providing direction and guidance, and administering management functions within the provisions of policies and standards and federal, state and local regulations
Monitors denial and avoidable write-off performance of Pre-Service Center-assigned authorization and pre-registration functions; evaluates denials and avoidable write-offs to develop and implement solutions
Developed and implemented routine monitoring and audit systems which lead to a 19% reduction of overall denials throughout a 5-hospital system within a 6-month period
Increased staff satisfaction scores within a 73-staff member team by a full percentage point moving the ranking within the 75th percentile through the span of one cycle period
Managed daily operations to ensure revenue increase via correct and accurate authorization, point of service collections, pre-registration processes, budgetary reductions and accounts payable increase
Increased point of service cash collection by over 20% month over month
Monitor, defined and appropriate utilization of needed human and material resources and supports collaboration with multiple disciplines for desired patient experiences and access to services.

Interim AVP/Director of Revenue Cycle, Parallon

Parallon Business Solution

01.2014 - 01.2017

Develop and implement policies and procedures related to patient access, finance and regulatory compliance
Improving SOX compliance by 98%, increasing up-front cash collection well over the 80th percentile and creating standard practices ensuring every patient received a positive experience from appointing, through check in, the actual visit and check out with little to no variance
Increasing patient satisfaction from the 8th percentile to the 72nd percentile
Plan, direct, and monitor the processes and function of patient access utilizing lean daily management tools
Implementation of daily management systems, inclusive of teaching leaders how to utilize lean tools such as Kamishibai, A-3 and visual systems in order to stream-line operations and engage staff while continually creating improvement opportunities
Work closely with clinic and hospital executive leaders to ensure regulatory compliance and changes were adhered to and adopted as legislation, state laws and independent compliance entity requirements changed or were implemented
Evaluate and direct efforts to improve patient access initiatives
Streamlined out-patient appointing process, decreased denial rate due to no authorization over 50% while ensuring patients receive appointments when and where they desired
Provide input and direction into strategic plans, goals, objectives and budgets
While working with facility CFO, CEO and CNO planned, implemented and monitored patient satisfaction committee efforts, up-front collection standard practice, denials coordinator standard work, case management joint rounding and reduced staffing costs within patient access by 3.00 FTE per year over a five year budgetary plan
Develop, communicate and implement strategic initiatives
Create departmental culture of continuous improvement and learning by empowering all team members to problem solve and raise issues and solutions
Created and monitors performance metrics where historically there had been none specifically for the Patient Access, Scheduling, Surgical Center and off Site Imaging departments
Reconcile weekly, monthly and quarterly accounting reports to ensure billing and compliance accuracy in tasks completed by patient access, HIM, scheduling and case management.

Operations Manager

Group Health

01.1998 - 01.2014

Lead the execution of numerous new business strategies as well as policies and procedures, system initiatives, compliance, and regulatory requirements
In collaboration with organizational leaders from all levels of the organization and multi-disciplinary clinic staff
Tightly managing 1.2 million dollar departmental budget reduced employee overtime utilization by 95% without impacting excellent patient experience survey results averaging in the 86th percentile
During a time in the organization in which change is rapid, increased annual Gallup staff engagement scores from an average rating of 2.0 to a maximum rating of 4.1
Built high functioning and self-driven teams with high moral using a combination of affiliative coaching and pacesetting leadership styles
Reduced re-work and staff driven billing errors by 45%; with the Integration of A3 problem solving; daily management systems and utilizing lean management methodologies to oversee the day-to-day operations within multi-disciplinary teams in a large geographic area
Hired 20+ qualified, customer-focused individuals ensuring thorough training and orientation
Maintained a 90% retention rate of staff with many moving upwardly within the organization
Render expertise in tasks that pertain to the overall revenue activities of the company, such as patient registration, account management, and regulatory requirements by effectively leading business operations teams within five area medical centers
Mentored a trained a team of 45 individuals to enhance the staff’s competencies in customer service, patient accounts, appointing and business office functions
Creating a cross function workforce and saving the organization approx
$50,000 annual in resource backfill costs
Reduced resource costs by $84,000 through the development, implementation and strategic management of centralized call handling efforts
Successfully set team pace, norms and expectations; increasing outcomes for key business initiatives by 10%
Initiative focus included: patient satisfaction, copay collection rate, appointment optimization, telephone performance and claim rejects
In collaboration with clinical operations managers, developed streamlined electronic communication tools utilizing Microsoft Outlook and Epic; meeting organizational goals pertaining to attainment of efficiencies.

Summary

Overview

Work History

Director Patient Access

Director Patient Service Revenue Cycle

Director Pre-Service Center

Interim AVP/Director of Revenue Cycle, Parallon

Operations Manager

Education

Master of Science Degree in Healthcare Administration -

Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Management and Leadership -

General Associates Transfer Degree -

Skills

Qualifications Summary

Associations

Professional Development

References

Timeline

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