Quality Improvement Flashcards

An HSA administrator finds that 80% of contribution-posting errors come from 3 of its 15 payroll file formats. Which quality tool made this pattern visible?

Answer: Pareto chart

A Pareto chart ranks causes by frequency so the 'vital few' sources of most defects stand out.

An HSA trustee is in the 'Check' step of a PDCA cycle for a new debit-card substantiation process. What should the team be doing?

Answer: Comparing results against the baseline and target metrics

In PDCA, 'Check' means measuring pilot results against expected outcomes before acting on them.

A quality audit shows several account holders went over the annual limit because employer contributions were not counted toward it. Which control would best prevent this?

Answer: Tracking combined employer and employee contributions against the limit

Employer and employee contributions both count toward the single annual HSA limit, so the system has to track them together.

Which KPI best measures how accurate an HSA administrator's tax reporting is?

Answer: Percentage of Forms 5498-SA and 1099-SA issued without corrections

The share of tax forms issued without corrections directly measures how accurate the reporting is.

A root cause analysis finds that excess contributions often go uncorrected because members learn about them after the tax deadline. What fix best addresses the root cause?

Answer: Automated mid-year alerts when contributions near the annual limit

Early automated alerts deal with the late-discovery cause, so excess amounts can be removed before the deadline and the 6% excise tax.

Using the '5 Whys' technique on a spike in rejected HSA rollovers, the team should mainly aim to:

Answer: Keep asking why until they reach the underlying process cause

The 5 Whys repeats 'why' to get past symptoms to the systemic root cause.

An HSA provider's control chart for daily claim-reimbursement turnaround shows one point above the upper control limit. What does this most likely mean?

Answer: A special-cause variation that should be investigated

Points outside the control limits signal special-cause variation that calls for investigation.