Capturing All Charges in a Timely FashionNurses also help contain costs by ensuring that all possible charges are captured. Several laerge hospitals reportmore thar $1 million a year lost from supplies that werenot charged. In hospitals, nurses must know which supplies are charged to patients and which ones arecharged to the unit. In addition, the procedures andequipment used need to be accurately documented.In ambulatory and community settings, nurses oftenneed to keep abreast of the codes that are used to billservices. These codes change yearly, and sometimesitems are bundled together under one charge and sometimes they are broken down into different charges.Turning in charges in a timely manner is also important, because delayed billing negatively affects cash flowby extending the time before an organization is paidfor services provided. This is particularly significantin smaller organizations.