Photo By Douglas Stutz | Keeping tabs…Ms. Elizabeth Tellez, Naval Hospital Bremerton Uniform Business Office...... read more read more
The Defense Health Agency Revenue Cycle Performance Dashboard Digest devoted the April monthly newsletter on timely trends and updated data points across the entire enterprise of military treatment facilities.
Yet beyond the balance sheets, billing, and coding overviews was a brief personality feature of a civil service employee emblematic of ensuring all such resource management and collection needs are correctly – and timely - administered.
Meet Ms. Elizabeth Tellez, Naval Hospital Bremerton Uniform Business Office supervisory financial management analyst.
When asked about the DHA feature, Tellez replied, “During my time as UBO manager, NHB has been, and continues to be, the leader amongst all service-wide UBO offices for accurate and timely compliance audit sampling. This is a direct reflection of the quality of work and revenue collected by our department.”
Tellez began her career at the then Naval Hospital Oak Harbor in 2006 as a contract medical coder auditor and documentation trainer. She became part of federal civil service in 2008, assigned to the now Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor Uniform Business Office.
“I wanted the opportunity to serve the American public and make an impact on the military service communities,” said Tellez, a El Paso, Texas native, El Paso High School 1986 grad, and Shoreline Community College 2016 alumni with an Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences – Health Information Technology degree.
In June 2016, she was promoted and reassigned to her current position at NHB. Tellez has also been acknowledged for her outstanding service, cited for her “commitment to excellence, professionalism, and dedication to her duties. Her efforts contributed significantly to the mission accomplishment and effectiveness of Naval Hospital Bremerton.”
Overseeing the Uniform Business Office is more than just tabulating statistics on a ledger or totaling column figures.
“The Uniform Business Office ensures that billable medical and pharmacy services are identified, insurance payer information is available, accurate and complete billing claims are generated, and appropriate collections are received, directly back to the military treatment facility,” explained Tellez on the importance of her office to NHB. “Together, three cost recovery programs - third party billing, medical service accounts and medical affirmative claim programs - provide the business processes for cost recovery including collections control, accounts receivable, and deposits.”
According to Tellez, Title 10, United States Code (U.S.C.) Section 1095 authorizes military treatment facilities to recover the cost of providing health care services to covered DoD beneficiaries from third party payers.
“Medical services account activities involve billing and collecting funds for medical and dental services, including elective cosmetic procedures provided in DHA facilities. Medical affirmative claims activities involve billing all areas of liability insurance. All recovered collections are directed back the command which provided the services,” Tellez said.
Tellez leads managing all NHB’s billing, collections, and data accuracy to ensure effective healthcare cost recovery and financial accountability. She works to improve and maximize third-party reimbursements from various insurance providers and identify and implement process improvements to enhance efficiency and accuracy within the UBO.
“My team and I daily research, analyze, and report issues based upon reporting tool results,” remarked Tellez. “[as an example] We recently discovered a systematic issue that was holding up possible reimbursement of $81,000.”
“Systematic issues can be very challenging to work through, however finding a resolution is a bonus not only for the command, but for the entire enterprise,” added Tellez, also noting it has been gratifying to share problem solving techniques, work processes and corrective measures with her DHA UBO counterparts.
Tellez attests the best part about her career is not the financial facts and fiscal figures. “It’s being able to make work-related friendships along the way that extend miles across land and sea,” she said.
When asked to sum up her experience at NHB’s in one sentence, Tellez stated, “Teamwork. Go Navy!”
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2025 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 496847 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 580 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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