Hospital purchases building
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 27, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
The former Social Security building, 2605 Medical Office Place, has been purchased by Wayne Memorial Hospital for use as the new home of its Patient Financial Services and other offices.
Wayne Memorial Hospital has purchased the former Social Security building at 2605 Medical Office Place for use as the Wayne Memorial Hospital Service Center.
"Patient Financial Services, which are now over on William Street, are going to be in there, and other departments to be named," said Becky Craig, the hospital chief financial officer. "That is going to be much more convenient for patients.
"We still have some offices in trailers out here, and we have always talked about getting them out of there."
The hospital paid $835,000 for the approximately 9,000-square-feet building, which has a tax value of $1,191,430.
"For business services, it is a good building," Mrs. Craig said. "We will not be doing lot of patient care there. It is not really a patient care building. We are looking forward to it. The plan is renovate over the summer and then move in just as quickly after the summer is over as we can.
"I think it has been vacant over there for quite some time. We have had our eye on it for awhile. We were on a lease over on William Street that ends this year. So as we started looking at what we were going to do, it made sense to take a look at this building across the street. Obviously convenience is the single biggest factor, and it is a good price."
The building is about 15 years old and will require some minor renovation such as new carpeting, she said.
The hospital is in the process of pricing the work, she said.
"Until we decide what is going to be over there, we have to finish doing the space planning and go from there," Mrs. Craig said. "But that just should be wrapped up in the next couple of weeks."
The hospital will be able to use furniture now at the William Street location.
Bill payments are accepted at the hospital, but if someone wants to talk about a bill they owe they now have to go to the William Street office.
The office has about 30 employees doing everything from insurance verification, pre-authorizations, application payments to bills, follow-up on bills and denials, she said.
Approximately 15 percent of hospital bills are paid online, Mrs. Craig said.
"We send out about 10,000 bills a month," she said.
About 10 to 15 patients visit the William Street office a day, so hospital officials do not expect a flood of people when the new office opens, she said.
"But we might have more people than we are used to because it will be more convenient," Mrs. Craig said. "There is a lot of talk about transparency about estimates. If someone walks i,n we will do an estimate for them. If someone is going have something scheduled like, say there are having their knees replaced, we will go through an estimate with them in advance.
"Or they can call and get an estimate on any procedure that we do through this office. The number to call is 919-731-6112. That has been the number forever and is in the phonebook and is on our website. It is the Patients Financial Services number."
Another aspect of that service is discussion with the patient as to what is the best way to pay for whatever procedure they will be undergoing, Ms. Craig said.
"So you are just not walking in on the day of the surgery and then going, 'Oh my gosh. How am I ever going to pay for this?'" she said. "You have already thought about it. You are going to do it over 12 months with no interest. That is an option.
"If you pay early there is a 20 percent discount. If you pay within 30 days of the final bill, it's 15 percent. It saves us from bill after bill after bill."
An advantage to being a hospital in a community like Wayne County is knowing the patients, she said.
"We know people," she said. "We know their payment history. I would say we are very patient-friendly. We really do try to make it as easy on the patient as we can.
"Any patient who needs help we have a financial application for help. It's on our website. It's called the Wayne Medical Assistance application. We do need you to help us determine if you are eligible for the policy as approved by our board."