Chapter 2 introduces the hospital billing process. When patients visit a hospital, the facility's business staff works together with the clinical staff of physicians and nurses and with the support staff, such as housekeeping and food service, to make the encounters as satisfactory as possible. Clinicians plan and perform medical treatments and procedures. The business staff follows a process that helps ensure that all services are documented and reimbursed.

After patients are registered, the medical care provided to them is documented in their medical records. Also recorded is the cost of each service or supply that is billable to a patient's account. At the end of the inpatient hospitalization or outpatient visit, the charges are collected and entered in the patient accounting system. Patient account specialists use this system to prepare insurance claims and patients' bills. This work is done carefully to avoid billing errors that might lead to incorrect charges, unpaid bills, or late payments. The process continues with sending insurance claims to third-party payers and bills to patients, processing payments, and collecting overdue accounts.

Learning Objectives