subject: Medical Billing- Five Make Or Break Areas Impacting Patient Relations [print this page] Billing isn't the highest priority of your practice, healing is. However, your medical billing service can be one of your strongest allies in dealing with your patients. Why? Well, during an office visit you usually will see the patient once.
However, depending on all of the functions they perform, your billing service may touch your patient up to four times per one office visit.
Many medical billing services do not mention the importance of being able to effectively and empathetically deal with patients. The reality is that the patient relations performance of your billing service can have a make or break impact about how your patient's view your practice.
Here are the ways your billing service can strengthen the bond between your medical practice and your patients.
Billing- An important billing factor is to make sure the bills are coherent to the average person. Not only for the patient's sake but so the biller can answer questions about the bill, if necessary.
Billing Problems- 72 percent of employer's in 2009 cover 100 percent of preventive care such as physicals or mammograms. Is your billing service aware of that?
If a biller is unaware of the insured's practice, an erroneous bill could go out. So, it's important that the biller know and can competently code and translate to a bill, the insurance carrier's payment practice for all medical procedures.
Claim Denials- In 2008, on average, national health insurers denied 9.2 percent of claims. That means nearly one in ten patients could be calling the biller for an explanation. That means that nearly one in ten bills may have to be resubmitted to the insurance companies. How does your billing service perform regarding these aberrant situations?
Collections- This is a very sensitive issue. It is an area where billers have to balance their collection approach with the good will of the medical practice. The last comment you want to hear from a patient is regarding harassment over a bill. What are the collection practices and timelines of your billing service?
It's easy to have good patient relations with your medical billing service when everything goes smoothly. But, it's the 10 percent of the cases where problems occur that make or break patient relations for even the most dedicated practice.
When deciding between billing services, you can ask about the technical training for the billing reps. You expect them to be trained on coding procedures, claims submission timelines and insurance company guidelines.
However, you may want to also ask about the "bedside manner" training for the billing representatives who will be speaking with your patients. Do the reps get soft skill training in how to speak on the phone, handing emotionally distraught patients and problem resolution?
Because that's when you need your billing service to provide first class patient care, just as you do when dealing with a medical problem.
Finally, there's one more area where patient relations are sensitive:
Privacy- This may not result in direct contact from a patient with a medical biller. However, new laws impacting HIPAA and the Red Flags Rules will be causing increased scrutiny about protecting patient information from identity theft and other malfeasance.
Is your medical biller in compliance with the new laws and regulations? Is their billing system secure? Do they guarantee the security of your patient's personal medical information?
One security breach with one patient in this critical area is all it may take to seriously jeopardize the confidence of all your patients.
