Significant Savings Achieved With Insurance Discovery

As the Hill County Indigent Health Care Coordinator, April Cook wears many hats. Indigent care is reserved for those who lack the financial resources to afford healthcare and includes individuals with various circumstances, from homelessness to incarceration.

One of her most challenging responsibilities is single-handedly managing the medical administration and billing for all Hill County inmates.

Located in Hillsboro, Texas, Hill County jail has its own medical team to handle chronic conditions or daily medication dispensing. This configuration may work well for a typical healthcare facility or rehabilitation center, but a jail is a different environment with unique characteristics.

Health insurance information is not always provided at intake, but an inmate is likely to need care at some point.

Cook explained that injuries resulting from fights or other disturbances were automatically billed as emergency care. “Emergency room costs are extraordinarily high and that’s what the majority of inmate care is,” she added.

If a test or surgery is ordered by a doctor, the county is responsible to pay the bill – unless the inmate has private insurance. Answering that question was routinely difficult for Cook, but the time spent searching could potentially save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the slow process continued.

Insurance Discovery has streamlined the claims and billing process so much that it allows Cook to focus on other responsibilities. She explained, “Because we’re a small county, I work with indigent healthcare, our homeless population, and elections.”

Though she values the efficiency of her new workflow, Cook contends that the main benefit is definitely the lower costs. “It was a huge savings,” she noted, explaining that in less than a year, the program has more than paid for itself.