Rehab administrators answer questions regarding Central Scheduling. IPRC archives information collected by the Pediatric Rehab Administrator’s ListServ as a public service to the entire Pediatric Rehabilitation Community. All information is posted in summary format and has been de-identified. Search through past queries for responses to rehabilitation related questions.

Original Question(s):

Our department is being moved to a central scheduling line and central authorization completed by our access center.  Currently, patients call the specific site that they want to be seen at and our authorization staff work on the insurance benefits.  I was curious if any of your departments have made this move and if you could possibly share some information. 

• Do you have central scheduling, central authorization, or both?
  • If you have both, what was your process to implement (for example, did central scheduling come first)?
• For Central scheduling:
  • How clinical are your decision trees?
  • Are they based on clinical competencies for appropriate visit types?
  • Do the clinicians schedule the follow up visits or do you have front desk staff?
• For Central Authorization:
  • Does your central auth team only handle evaluations?
  • Who completes authorization for treatments, same day scheduled appointments, etc?
  • If families have insurance or billing questions in the moment at your site, who speaks to them?

Summary of Responses