18 Registration, Intake & Data Capture Practice Questions & Answers

1. 1. Before documenting anything in a patient's chart, a specialist must confirm the patient's identity. Which pair serves as two acceptable patient identifiers?

   • A.The room number and the date of birth
   • B.The first name and the assigned exam room
   • C.The full legal name and the date of birth✓ Answer
   • D.The date of birth and the appointment time

   Two identifiers are required because each one alone can be shared by more than one person, and the identifiers must be tied to the individual rather than to where the individual happens to be. A room number, bed number, or physical location changes whenever the patient moves and is never acceptable as an identifier; an appointment time identifies a slot, not a person. Legal name and date of birth both belong to the patient and are the pair used most often at registration.

   Source: Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal on patient identification, NPSG.01.01.01Report a problem with this question

2. 2. A patient already established at the clinic returns for her third visit of the year. What happens to her medical record number (MRN) and her account number for this visit?

   • A.The MRN stays the same and a new account number is assigned✓ Answer
   • B.A new MRN is assigned and the account number stays the same
   • C.Both the MRN and the account number are newly assigned
   • D.Both the MRN and the account number stay the same

   The two numbers answer different questions. The MRN identifies the patient's clinical chart at that facility: one per patient, permanent, so every visit files into the same record. The account or billing number identifies a single encounter, so charges, payments, and the claim for that visit stay separated from every other visit. Assigning a second MRN to an established patient is exactly how a duplicate record is created.

   Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (patient identifier types)Report a problem with this question

3. 3. A new patient arrives to register in person. Which item is an acceptable form of identification for confirming who the patient is?

   • A.A state driver's license bearing the patient's photograph✓ Answer
   • B.A health insurance card bearing the patient's member number
   • C.An appointment reminder card bearing the patient's printed name
   • D.A pharmacy discount card bearing the patient's printed name

   Identity is confirmed with government-issued photo identification such as a driver's license, state identification card, passport, or military identification, because the photograph ties the document to the person standing at the desk. An insurance card proves that coverage exists and supplies the member number, but it carries no photograph and can be presented by anyone, so it verifies benefits rather than identity. Discount and reminder cards carry a printed name only and prove nothing about who is holding them.

   Source: ONC Patient Demographic Data Quality Playbook, registrar identity verification guidanceReport a problem with this question

4. 4. A walk-in patient says he thinks he was seen at the practice a few years ago but cannot recall any details. What should the specialist do first?

   • A.Search only under the exact first name the patient offers
   • B.Search the master patient index by last name and date of birth✓ Answer
   • C.Create a new record and ask billing to merge any older one
   • D.Create a new record because inactive charts are archived yearly

   Search before you create is the reflex the domain is built on: a new record must never be opened until the master patient index has been searched, because a second number for an existing patient splits that person's history across two charts. Effective searching uses broad and combined criteria, such as last name with date of birth, partial or phonetic spellings, prior or maiden names, and nicknames against the legal name. Searching on one exact spelling misses the most common causes of duplicates, which are misspellings, nicknames, and name changes.

   Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (master patient index search before record creation)Report a problem with this question

5. 5. A provider opens Maria Delgado's chart and finds allergy and laboratory data belonging to a different patient; the information of the two patients has been combined into one record. What is this error called?

   • A.An overlap
   • B.A duplicate
   • C.An overlay✓ Answer
   • D.A merge

   An overlay places two different people's data in a single record and is the most dangerous of the identity errors, because a clinician reading the chart may act on allergies, results, or history that belong to someone else. A duplicate is the opposite pattern, one patient carrying two or more record numbers at the same facility, and an overlap is one patient carrying different numbers at different facilities within an enterprise. A merge is not an error at all but the controlled process used to resolve duplicates.

   Source: AHIMA master patient index integrity guidance (duplicate, overlay, overlap definitions)Report a problem with this question

6. 6. While registering a patient, a specialist finds two records that appear to belong to the same person. What is the appropriate action?

   • A.Report the suspected duplicate to health information management✓ Answer
   • B.Continue in the newer record and leave both records active
   • C.Copy the data into one record and inactivate the other one
   • D.Delete the record holding fewer entries and keep the other one

   The record is a legal document, so combining or removing records is a controlled process performed by health information management under facility policy, with the resulting chart traceable through the audit trail. Deleting or hand-copying data destroys or breaks the link to information that clinicians and payers may later need, and working in one chart while both stay active guarantees that the next visit is filed in whichever one comes up first. The registration role is to identify and report the suspected duplicate so it is resolved correctly.

   Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (report or reconcile duplicate records)Report a problem with this question

7. 7. A patient's driver's license reads Robert James O'Connell Jr., and he says everyone calls him Bob. How should the name fields be completed at registration?

   • A.First name Bob, last name O'Connell, preferred name Robert
   • B.First name Robert, middle name Jr., last name OConnell
   • C.First name Robert, last name O'Connell Jr., preferred name Bob✓ Answer
   • D.First name Robert Jr., last name O'Connell, preferred name Bob

   The name fields must hold the legal name exactly as printed on the identification and the insurance card, because that string is what matching algorithms, eligibility inquiries, and claims compare against. A generational suffix such as Jr., Sr., or III belongs with the last name rather than the first or middle name, and punctuation such as apostrophes and hyphens is preserved rather than stripped. The nickname is stored in the preferred name field so staff can greet the patient correctly without the nickname ever displacing the legal name used for matching.

   Source: ONC Patient Demographic Data Quality Playbook, name field capture standardsReport a problem with this question

8. 8. A patient books an appointment for next week and gives her insurance information when she schedules. What is the best practice for confirming her coverage?

   • A.Submit an electronic eligibility inquiry to the payer before the visit✓ Answer
   • B.Photocopy the insurance card and treat it as proof of active coverage
   • C.Wait for the remittance advice to show whether the policy was active
   • D.Verify eligibility only for patients not seen within the past year

   An electronic eligibility inquiry asks the payer directly whether coverage is active for the date of service and returns the details that drive the front desk: copay, remaining deductible, coinsurance, network status, and whether a referral or prior authorization is required. The insurance card only shows that a policy existed when the card was printed, so it cannot prove that the policy is still in force. Discovering a termination after the fact, from the payer's remittance, leaves the balance unbilled and the patient uninformed on the day of the visit.

   Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Revenue Cycle and Finance (real-time eligibility verification at registration)Report a problem with this question

9. 9. During registration a patient says she prefers not to state her race or ethnicity. How should this be handled in the record?

   • A.Enter the answer as a free-text comment instead of in the fields
   • B.Select the race and ethnicity that the patient's surname suggests
   • C.Record that the patient declined to specify race and ethnicity✓ Answer
   • D.Leave the race and ethnicity fields blank until a later visit

   Certified health information technology must be able to record that a patient declined to specify race, ethnicity, or preferred language, which means declining is itself a recorded value rather than an empty field. A blank field is ambiguous, since no one can tell later whether the question was asked and refused or simply never asked, and that difference matters when the data is used for quality and population reporting. These elements are always self-reported and are never inferred from appearance, surname, or language spoken.

   Source: ONC Certified Health IT demographics certification criterion, 45 CFR 170.315(a)(5)Report a problem with this question

10. 10. A specialist records a guarantor while registering a child for a visit. What does the guarantor role identify?

    • A.The party to be contacted first in an emergency involving the patient
    • B.The party whose insurance policy provides the patient's coverage
    • C.The party legally authorized to consent to the patient's treatment
    • D.The party financially responsible for the patient's account✓ Answer

    The guarantor is the person who accepts financial responsibility for the balance on the account, which is why the guarantor's own name, address, telephone, date of birth, and relationship to the patient are captured as separate fields. That person may or may not be the same as the policy subscriber, the consenting parent, or the emergency contact, and treating those roles as interchangeable sends statements to the wrong person and delays payment. For a minor, the guarantor is usually a parent, but the record still stores each role separately.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (collection of guarantor and coverage information)Report a problem with this question

11. 11. Registration data is used to generate the face sheet for an encounter. What does the face sheet provide?

    • A.A chronological list of the progress notes written during the visit
    • B.A record of every medication administered during the encounter
    • C.A copy of the discharge instructions given to the patient at exit
    • D.A summary of identification, financial, and encounter information✓ Answer

    The face sheet, also called the admission or demographic sheet, is the front summary page built directly from what registration entered: identification data such as legal name, address, date of birth, sex, record number and account number, financial data such as guarantor, employer and insurance plan, and encounter data such as attending provider and admission date. Because armbands, labels, and claims are produced from the same verified entry, an error made at registration propagates to every one of them. The face sheet contains protected health information, so printed copies must be secured rather than left at an open workstation.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (generation of encounter documentation)Report a problem with this question

12. 12. A specialist adds a referring physician to the provider database. Which statement about the National Provider Identifier (NPI) is accurate?

    • A.It is reassigned to another clinician once the original holder retires
    • B.It is reissued whenever the provider changes practice location or state
    • C.It is a ten-digit number that carries no specialty or state information✓ Answer
    • D.It is a ten-digit number whose digits encode the provider's specialty

    The NPI is deliberately intelligence-free: the ten digits are a plain identifier and encode nothing about the provider's specialty, state, license, or type of practice, so the number never has to change when any of those change. It is assigned once, is permanent, and is not reused for another provider. Specialty is carried instead by the taxonomy code stored with the provider record, and state-specific information is carried by the license number.

    Source: CMS National Provider Identifier Standard (NPPES enumeration)Report a problem with this question

13. 13. An electronic result arrives from an outside laboratory, but the name and date of birth on it do not match any patient in the system. What should the specialist do?

    • A.Route the result to the error queue and verify identity with the laboratory✓ Answer
    • B.Delete the result and wait for the laboratory to send a corrected copy
    • C.File the result in the closest matching chart and note the discrepancy
    • D.Create a new record from the laboratory's demographics and file it there

    Data received from an outside laboratory, imaging center, or another provider must be confirmed as belonging to the correct patient, using the same two identifiers required at the desk, before it is filed. Filing an unmatched result in a close-looking chart is how another patient's data ends up in a record, and opening a new record on the strength of the sending laboratory's demographics manufactures a duplicate. Unmatched results belong in a work queue for reconciliation, and the ordering provider must still receive them.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (acquiring data from external sources)Report a problem with this question

14. 14. A signed consent form has been scanned into the EHR. What must be verified so that the image is indexed correctly?

    • A.The file format and the resolution selected at the scanning device
    • B.The patient identifier, the date of service, and the document type✓ Answer
    • C.The order in which the pages were fed through the scanning device
    • D.The name of the staff member who operated the scanning device

    Scanning only converts paper to an image; indexing is what attaches that image to the right patient, the right encounter or date of service, and the right document category so it can be found again by anyone who needs it. A document indexed to the wrong patient is the scanning equivalent of an overlay, since it puts one person's signed form or record into another person's chart, and it must be reported and corrected rather than deleted. Image quality is checked as well, and the paper original is retained or destroyed according to facility policy only after that check.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (importing information from integrated devices)Report a problem with this question

15. 15. A practice keeps an inventory of the e-signature pads, tablets, and cameras used with the EHR. Why does the accuracy of that list matter?

    • A.Devices missing from the list cannot be accounted for if PHI is lost✓ Answer
    • B.The list sets how many patient records each device may store locally
    • C.Devices missing from the list lose their network access automatically
    • D.The list determines which staff members may open the clinical record

    Any device that captures, displays, or stores protected health information is part of the organization's security exposure, and a device that is not on the inventory cannot be located, wiped, or reported when it goes missing, which turns a lost tablet into an unquantifiable breach. Accurate lists also support patching and upgrades, warranty and replacement tracking, and audits, and each entry should carry an asset tag or serial number, an assigned location or user, and a status that is reconciled periodically. Access to the record is controlled by role-based user permissions, not by the equipment list.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (maintaining inventory of EHR-related hardware)Report a problem with this question

16. 16. A clinic books two patients at the top of each hour, then one patient at twenty minutes past and one at forty minutes past. Which scheduling method is this?

    • A.Double booking
    • B.Modified wave scheduling✓ Answer
    • C.Cluster scheduling
    • D.Wave scheduling

    Modified wave books a small group at the top of the hour and then spaces the remaining patients through the hour, which absorbs late arrivals and visits that run long without leaving the provider idle. Straight wave books the whole hour's group at the top of the hour to be seen in order of arrival and readiness, double booking places two patients in the same slot with the same provider, and cluster scheduling groups similar visit types together, such as a morning of physicals. Naming the pattern matters because each one distributes waiting time differently.

    Source: NHA CEHRS Test Plan, Non-Clinical Operations (scheduling methods and provider templates)Report a problem with this question

17. 17. A child is covered by both parents' health plans. The mother's date of birth is March 12, 1988, and the father's is January 30, 1990. Which plan is primary for the child?

    • A.The mother's plan, because she is recorded as the child's guarantor
    • B.The father's plan, because his policy has been in effect longer
    • C.The father's plan, because his birthday falls earlier in the year✓ Answer
    • D.The mother's plan, because she was born in the earlier calendar year

    Under the birthday rule used in coordination of benefits, the primary plan for a dependent child is the plan of the parent whose birthday, meaning month and day only, falls earlier in the calendar year. Year of birth is ignored, so the older parent is not automatically primary, which is the misreading that most often produces a wrongly sequenced claim. January 30 comes before March 12 in the calendar year, so the father's plan is primary and the payer order is recorded that way at registration.

    Source: NAIC Coordination of Benefits Model Regulation, birthday rule for dependent childrenReport a problem with this question

18. 18. Two days after registering a patient, a specialist notices that the date of birth was entered with two digits transposed. How should the error be handled?

    • A.Correct the entry through the amendment function so the audit trail remains✓ Answer
    • B.Type over the wrong date so the record displays only the correct value
    • C.Leave the entry unchanged and send the correct date to the billing office
    • D.Delete the encounter and register the patient again with the right date

    The health record is a legal document, so an error is corrected in a way that shows what the entry said before, what it says now, who changed it, and when. Using the system's amendment or correction function preserves that audit trail, while typing over the value or deleting and re-registering erases the history and can also strip away documentation already attached to the encounter. Leaving the wrong date in place while telling billing verbally guarantees that the next identity check, eligibility inquiry, or claim still runs against the incorrect data.

    Source: AHIMA guidance on amendments, corrections and deletions in the health recordReport a problem with this question

Practice questions based on the NHA CEHRS Test Plan, the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules (45 CFR Part 164), and the HITECH Act. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Healthcareer Association. Every electronic health record system arranges its own screens and menus, so workflows here are described in general terms — follow your own system's documentation and your facility's policies. Record-retention periods, permissible abbreviations, and many release-of-information details are set by state law and facility policy rather than federally, and penalty amounts are adjusted over time; verify all of these against current sources rather than against a practice test. Confirm current eligibility and exam requirements with NHA before you test. About the CEHRS certification →