Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

Question: Reviews are coming up and we added a financial counselor position this year. How can we measure his job performance to provide a fair review?

Nevada Subscriber

Answer: "From my perspective there is not one specific metric for financial counselors, says Dan Sherman, MA, LPC, founder and president of the NaVectis Group, which specializes in clinical financial navigation. "There are far too many variables that factor into the equation," he adds.

But for a cancer program that provides all three treatment modalities (infusion, radiation, and surgery), he expects a financial counselor to save the program approximately $500,000 for every 1,000 patients the program sees.

And don't forget patient satisfaction and even the job satisfaction of your other staff members, including social workers, pharmacy techs, and front office staff, he adds. "Often the work of dealing with financial distress falls on these individuals and they have had no training in how to effectively deal with these complicated problems" he says. A financial counselor who is doing his or her job will relieve a great deal of that burden.