Co-leads' joint 'key to success': ”Communication is the foundational cornerstone to our UBT success. The language we create from navigating through the UBT mindset will help us transform into a culture of sustainability. The better we get at this, the better we understand each other, and change will be the accepted norm,”

Background: Reducing the backlog of “sessions” in the work queue was an ongoing challenge for the professional coders in the NW. The traditional way of working the queues involved having different coders assigned to a specific line of business by payor.

The coders would work the queue trying to reduce their backlog—but sometimes there would be 158 new sessions in the queue, other days it could be more than 4,000. If only two coders were assigned a queue and suddenly a large number of claims were in that queue, it would be nearly impossible for them to bring their numbers back down.

What’s the impact? Delays in moving claims through the process impacts members, staff and KP’s bottom line. For patients, when sessions are not coded in a timely manner, statements get held up until coders can enter the appropriate physician diagnosis code. In addition, there’s an impact because diagnosis codes need to get into a patient’s health history.

Moreover, if claims are delayed, then bills can’t get processed. This reflects poorly on Kaiser Permanente’s ability to bill for services and causes a delay in collecting revenue.

“Using the team approach to reducing the backlog has been a huge success,” said supervisor Rebekah Wolf. “It’s improved staff morale, exposed staff to a variety of different queues, and has enabled them to have improved their skills.”