Your billing staff and the receptionist need to know you understand how hard their job is to get all the right forms done and entered, collecting the co-pays and deductibles. Let them know you support them in their efforts if a patient is giving them a hard time. You must help train your staff to train your patients of the office policy that you expect payment of co-pays/deductibles prior to going back to see the doctor.

Since your staff get paid by the hour, you must motivate them to help you get paid.

• Set aside time to figure out together what seminars (see Training below) they think will help them and which ones you think might help the practice the best.
• Billers need to be comfortable and need occasionally privacy for the difficult patient billing issues and insurance calls that they must make.
• Don’t keep your billers too far from the front desk as this can help set up the “us” against “them” attitude.

If you have your billing done from an outside agency, then you should designate the main contact person from your company that will deal with the questions they will have so you have a good communication set up between your office and the billing service.

With Your Patients

To help your patients understand that they need to pay the co-pay, coinsurance, deductibles, here is an example letter – to be signed by all of the doctors in the office. This signed letter should be posted around the front desk and waiting area for the patients to be able to read and see.

This will give the front desk the helping hand they need when a patient gives them a hard time about paying their co-pay before being seen. Your staff can now point to the letter signed by the doctors supporting the receptionist’s efforts. This is a proven method of informing your patients of a new policy.

To Our Patients: We have asked our front desk staff to collect all co-pays, coinsurance, previous balance, services/supplies that are not covered by your medical insurance plan, and deductibles prior to you being seen to help in our efforts to keep down billing costs. Our staff may also ask you for updated insurance and patient demographic information to help with the accuracy of our billing. Please be patient while we continue to update your information with your insurance carrier. Thank you. Sincerely, - All doctors to sign

Training
Free Seminars

Proper training, support, and respect for your billers and front desk teams are key to your success as a team and as a practice. Many insurance companies offer free classes and seminars. All staff members (receptionist, check-out girl, billing, back office) will find these seminars helpful and they will begin to understand what the others are going through trying to get the doctor paid. They will begin to see why some patients need to be in the waiting room longer so their insurance eligibility can be verified and/or collect the right amount money.

Cross Training

The more your billing staff knows about what you do in the examination rooms, testing rooms, and surgery, the more they will understand which diagnosis relate to which procedures.

Cross train the billing and front desk people so that they get an understanding of the name of the equipment, names of the tests, and why these might be done. If it is a simple test that will not hurt the person, test them on the equipment. This also helps them understand what the patient is going through if the patient complains to the billing person about the test and why they think they shouldn’t have to pay. Show them what different results mean and what this ultimately means for the patient health. The more they know the better. This will help them explained to the insurance company why that test was medical necessary and why the claim should be paid. This also keep staff interested in their jobs and increasing job satisfaction. Which decreases turnover, which saves you more money.

You should provide for the billing department a list of abbreviations used at your office in the medical chart, so if they need to pull the chart to see “Hey, was this test actually done or just ordered?” The billing person will be able to tell the test was completed and that you reviewed the results. If they are not 100% sure, they should still check with you or the nurse/technician for the answers. I became a better biller for ophthalmology once I was given training as an ophthalmic technician assistant.

Provide your staff for the proper up-to-date resources (CPT 2006, ICD-9 2006, HCPCS 2006 if needed, medical dictionary, and a few seminars/courses each year). Let them see that you respect their opinions and their skill. Let them know you understand how hard it is to hear nothing but complaints all day long in billing.

Rewards

Be respectful of all your office staff and do not talk openly about going to the “islands”, trips on the yacht, or the special vacation package to Australia. In fact, this should be office policy for everyone as most likely some of your staff still work paycheck to paycheck. It really brings it home to the employee how little they are paid for the hard work that they do. It just continues to develop into negative energy and problems with motivation with staff.

Take the time to put together reward programs that will work for your office. Reward your employees with bonus programs and paid days off. You will find your office will be filled with happier staff and your turn-over rate will decrease.

• Bonus Programs – they work !
  Motivate the front desk and billing personnel with a bonus system if your income surpasses last year’s income during the same month. You can compare self-pay issues such as collecting the copay prior to seeing the doctor. You should have a chart to track how you are doing each month of the year compared to last year.
  
  
• Day Off with Pay
  Offering a day off with pay does wonders for motivation and for office good will. Especially at holiday times, most people would rather have some extra time to get ready for the holidays.
  
  
• Holiday Bonuses
  Let your staff know, if you do well this year, they have a better chance of receiving holiday bonuses.
  
  
• Holiday Parties
  It seems silly for me to talk about holiday parties, but you would be surprised the amount of negative attitudes that can be developed and spill over into the workday routine that causes you the doctor to loose money.

• Do not have an after hours party
• Single moms/dads might be late for day care pickup
• Employees who carpool – would have to make other arrangements
• Employees are tired after a full day of work
• Some might not be able to attend due to childcare issues

• Afternoon Party
  It you have patients only in the morning, put the phones on answering service for the whole afternoon, and have a nice party that all the staff can attend without altering their family’s schedule. If you have a nice restaurant nearby that all the staff can just walk over or jump in the cars and drive over if it is not too far away. Staff really appreciate this and it makes it much more enjoyable if Staff is able to attend.

More Money for You

About EYE Bill FOR YOU

Based in Virginia with 54 years of combined experience and a broad range of medical billing knowledge, EYE Bill For You offers HIPAA compliant medical billing for many specialties. Our medical billing outsourcing solution is offered in the Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland areas.

Cathy Boddie (owner) has an established reputation for helping doctors lower their accounts receivables by examining super-bills and improving them to increase reimbursement levels. Cathy has taught students in medical billing and coding at Northern Virginia Community. Cathy has provided lectures and training sessions on medical billing and coding, Self Pay Issues, and working with Embassies accounts at Georgetown University Hospital and Medical Center.

http://www.eyebillforyou.com

EYE BILL FOR YOU
Cathy Boddie, Owner
email: cathy@eyebillforyou.com
phone: 877-EYE-BILL or 877-393-2455

For permission to republish the above article, please contact Cathy Boddie.