PracticeForces provides support for medical practices of all types in coding and billing. One common question the team hears is why patient demographic data is so prominent in these administrative processes. Every visit to a local healthcare provider will almost certainly require providing demographic information, like date of birth, insurance, and other details, and many patients wonder why.
As a start, patient demographics serve several important purposes, including the use of the correct modifier in medical billing.
How Collecting Patient Demographic Information Benefits Healthcare
While individual policies vary, healthcare providers and facilities typically collect the following patient information:
- Name
- Address
- Contact information
- Date of Birth
- Race and ethnicity
- Gender assigned at birth
- Insurance information
- General medical history (individual and family)
- Education
- Employment
- Health habits
Any information an office collects at registration or check-in qualifies in this category, whether the provider collects it during the visit or adds it to their patient’s demographic profile online. Regardless of how they collect it, providers use this information for five primary reasons.
#1 Identify Patients Correctly
Confirming demographic details matches patients to their records. It also prevents potential privacy violations, safety risks, duplicate records, and billing errors.
#2 Improve Patient Care
Demographics can reveal risk factors for certain diseases and conditions. Knowing more details allows medical care providers to offer preventative care or counseling more easily. Personalized care plans better address a patient’s needs and risk factors.
#3 Improve Cultural Competency
Race and ethnicity data may not seem medically relevant, but they can provide much better insight into a patient’s experience, worldview, and expectations. Providers can then be sensitive toward these differences to improve health equity. They can also offer people more culturally competent care based on their self-identified race, ethnicity, or religion’s health trends.
#4 Streamlined Medical Billing and Claims Processing
Accurate patient demographic information always supports medical billing and claims processing, ensuring bills and reimbursement claims arrive at the right place. Patient information errors, particularly insurance policy details, reduce the claim approval rate and slow down the practice’s reimbursement process, so accuracy is essential.
#5 Research and Analysis
Lastly, healthcare research heavily depends on practices capturing and collating accurate patient demographics. From determining the overall health of a specific population to identifying risk factors for disease, trends support the formation and refinement of healthcare initiatives, patient care standards, and more.
Learn About Electronic Medical Recording Software to Track and Secure Patient Data
Patient demographic data underpins exceptional care while managing cash flow via accurate medical billing. For more information about simplifying coding, billing, and record management, call PracticeForces at (727) 499-0355.
