Outsourcing Patient Calls: The Pros and Cons
Medical practices of all sizes and specialties are discovering the benefits of outsourcing patient phone calls to qualified, highly-trained third-party providers. Offering a simpler way to accept patient payments, resolve payment disputes and answer basic questions, these services can save medical practices a great deal of money while reducing the workload of current staff.
For 40 years, Med USA has offered excellent service to patients and medical practices alike, with a dedicated team of medical billing experts poised to solve any problem that comes their way. Many customers know about our experience with revenue cycle management, medical billing, coding, practice management, electronic health records management and other critical services, but lesser known is our ability to field incoming patient billing calls with unmatched expertise.
How Outsourcing Patient Calls Works
By default, each of Med USA’s full-service clients is offered patient calling services as part of their bundle of services. In fact, it’s been a part of our portfolio since 1979, during which time we’ve processed nearly 30 million patient visits with an average phone wait time of under 15 seconds. With most practices resorting to staff members performing multiple tasks throughout the day, they’re simply not equipped to provide this level of service to their growing patient base. Additionally, as privacy laws and insurance policies grow increasingly complicated and confusing with each passing year, handling patient calls is quickly becoming a burden for many practices, large and small. Put simply, the staffing levels just aren’t there to handle these types of calls.
Staffing Concerns
That’s where Med USA steps in. The fact is, patients frequently need to update their personal information (mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, marital status, name changes) or to change their insurance coverage information. While vital to the patients and the practice, these calls can be costly — both in terms of staff hours required to field them and in the sheer amount of time it takes to properly handle them. There’s also the fact that many patients who accrue large balances need to arrange a schedule of payments over time in order to satisfy their medical bills. Having someone on your side who can expertly and quickly arrange payment plans is crucial when time is of the essence.
Here’s an example. Let’s say a new patient wants to know how much a copay will be for an upcoming visit. Chances are, this patient will likely have other billing questions, as well. The patient’s questions about insurance coverage or timing of the bills could tie up staff whose time could be better spent fielding medical questions and dealing with visiting patients. Just as typical is a call disputing a bill, which can be incredibly time-consuming — and potentially frustrating — for your staff. When you have our service, we’ll field incoming calls and resolve disputes over line items on the patient’s bill so you can get back to doing what you do best: caring for patients.
While the majority of the calls we handle are incoming, we also provide outgoing automated message calls reminding patients of their payment responsibilities and offering several options to arrange for payment then and there. It not only saves your medical practice time, but increases revenue by keeping patients’ bills top of mind.
While it’s easy to imagine this helping smaller practices, the fact is, we provide patient call services for everyone from single-doctor practices to hospital groups with literally thousands of physicians — and everything in between. Bilingual services are provided for Spanish-speaking patients, as well.
Expert Compliance Staff
Each year, Med USA’s staff undergoes compliance training that familiarizes us with the ins and outs of the ever-changing privacy laws surrounding medical care. Our team understands who is authorized to discuss patient billing matters and who isn’t, as well as which information can be given out over the phone. A cutting-edge software system developed by Med USA walks our operators through prompts, ensuring total patient privacy is maintained at all times. Rest assured that Med USA’s team of medical billing experts are up-to-date on the latest developments with HIPPA, the Affordable Care Act and all other medical laws and regulations that develop.
How Med USA Can Help
For the past 40 years, Med USA has built profitable relationships by providing medical billing and practice management to practices of all shapes and sizes. Our Electronic Health Record (EHR), medical coding and credentialing services are unrivaled in our industry and each service we offer is geared to do one thing: to help make your job of running a medical practice easier. Our services are rooted in the concept of adaptability. Whether you need office-based physician practices or hospital-based physician practices, our 100 percent privately owned and operated company is here to help. Save time, energy and boost your ROI by tapping Med USA to help with your incoming patient billing calls today.
