An “almost” is an error that was caught before it left the building. Each one is logged the day it happens — what almost went out, what caught it, and the fix made so the same almost does not recur. Nothing in this log reached a payer or a clinic.
| Date | What almost happened | What caught it | The fix made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon Oct 5, 2026 | A claim batch was nearly submitted with one patient’s charges keyed under a second patient’s account after two similar names appeared back-to-back in the queue. | June’s final verification compared each account number against the visit note before release. | Similar-name accounts are now flagged in the queue, and entry pauses for a read-back of the account number before continuing. |
| Wed Oct 7, 2026 | A corrected claim was nearly sent without the correction note, which would have read as a duplicate submission. | Elena’s pre-submit checklist required the correction note field to be completed before the batch could close. | The submission screen now keeps the batch open until the correction note is entered. |
| Fri Oct 9, 2026 | Charges for a visit were nearly entered twice when the same charge sheet arrived by both email and the shared folder. | Priya spotted the matching visit date and amount in the day’s entry list. | Charge sheets are stamped “received” with a date in one place only; duplicates are filed to a separate folder on arrival. |
| Mon Oct 12, 2026 | A batch was nearly submitted a day early, before its eligibility checks had come back. | The WIP board showed the batch still in Verify; Elena held it at the board check in the morning huddle. | Batches now carry a visible “eligibility confirmed” marker before they may move to submission prep. |
| Tue Oct 13, 2026 | A denial follow-up letter was nearly sent with the previous month’s reference number in it. | Tom read the letter back against the denial notice before sending, as the read-back step requires. | The letter template now pulls the reference number from the denial record instead of being typed by hand. |
| Thu Oct 15, 2026 | Two claims were nearly coded with last week’s fee amounts after a price update took effect midweek. | Marcus’s coding review compared the amounts against the current fee schedule posted at his desk. | Fee updates now take effect only on Mondays, and the posted schedule shows its effective date at the top. |
| Fri Oct 16, 2026 | The weekly totals were nearly reported with Friday’s late batch counted in both this week and next. | Dana reconciled the week’s counts against the board’s Done column before posting. | The weekly count is now taken from the board alone, at 4:00 p.m. Friday, and the cutoff is written on the count sheet. |
Seven almosts logged in two weeks — and seven fixes made. Each entry names its catcher with thanks, not blame: the log exists so the next person is protected by the fix, not just warned by the story.