Show your insurance card when you sign in. Or don’t.

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I walked into a new dentist’s office last week and a sign posted on the check-in desk read, “All patients must show insurance card when you sign in.”

I don’t carry the card anymore but keep a scanned image on my phone, so I pulled it up. No one asked to see my insurance card, nor did anyone that checked in while I was sitting there show their insurance card.

Think about it: does your organization ever behave like this? 

  1. What policies do you have in place that don’t actually translate to a process or procedure OR are never implemented even though those all exist?
  2. What are you willing to police?

If you don’t really have a process or procedure for getting it done, get rid of the policy. If people aren’t going to do it, get rid of the policy. If you think people should do it, but you aren’t willing to police it, get rid of the policy.