At Cookeville Regional Medical Center efforts are underway to help relieve some of the anxiety that comes with that.

“Most of the time a hospital bill comes as a result of an unplanned, and usually unexpected, illness or injury,” says Charlotte Cummins, director of Patient Financial Services at Cookeville Regional. “Our goal is to help as much as we can to decrease a patient’s anxiety about that.”

Cookeville Regional Medical Center is continually working to provide the utmost in quality care for patients in the hospital, and with that effort comes providing valuable assistance when patients are faced with the expense of their hospital stay.

Not only does the hospital provide convenient payment options, but staff are also available to work with patients to develop payment plans and to even identify resources to help with payment in certain circumstances.

“We want patients to talk with us about their bills rather than avoiding them because they don’t know how they are going to pay them,” states Mary Jane Howard, Patient Financial Service Manager. “We are happy to talk with them over the phone or even for them to come in person if they’d rather to talk with us so that we can help them.”

“Many times we can find resources for patients that will help them with payment of their bills,” adds Howard. “We also have applications available for individuals who meet certain income requirements that may allow us to write off their bill and we are always willing to work the patient to work out a reasonable payment plan.”

The main thing for patients to realize is that they should not feel overwhelmed because the hospital is available to help them.

As a matter of fact, the hospital has placed a Patient Financial Representative in the Registration area of the hospital’s main lobby in the new North Patient Tower to talk in person, one-on-one with patients.

“That’s where a lot of the traffic is and patients tend to know that area of the hospital well so we have ‘moved us to them,’ so to speak,” adds Cummins. “Our representative is conveniently located there for them to speak one-on-one with someone who can help them with payment options that best suit their situation.”

“We want to help individuals according to their needs,” says Karen McNair, Patient Financial Representative. “Instead of being overwhelmed with their bill, we want them to realize that help is available – whether they come in to see me in the Registration area or work with one of the representatives in the main office.”

McNair is available daily, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., in the Registration department to help individuals on a one-on-one basis to discuss their situation and to help them out with their bill.

Representatives are still available in the Patient Financial Services Department at the hospital to help patients as well.

“We simply realized that placing someone where it is sometimes most convenient for our patients just made good sense,” says Cummins. “As our facility continues to grow, it’s becoming harder and harder for patients to find our office so we wanted to make our services more convenient to them.”

The hospital also offers on-line bill pay on the hospital website at www.crmchealth.org.

For any questions about hospital bills, please call the Patient Financial Services department at 931-783-2360 or McNair at 931-783-2701.