Expectations For Medical Billing Companies
Being a physician and running a practice seems to require a whole different skill-set. While delivering patient care is paramount, reducing costs and maintaining quality of care is also important.
Work with Care Providers
Physicians are not only required to navigate new payment structures like patient payments or risk-based payments, but also collaborate with other care providers.
Provide Phenomenal Customer Service
Not only that, the expectation for stellar customer service is at an all-time high from patients. As they assume more payment responsibility, patients expect responsive communication, and technology that gives them access to services like online payments.
Keep Up with Healthcare Regulations
If this weren’t enough, physicians also have to work with the increasingly complex regulatory systems spanning diverse topic areas that incorporate innumerable rules and compliances. Meeting the various regulations associated with legislation such as HIPAA and OSHA, environmental protocol, etc. can be tiresome. Are your physicians or healthcare personnel trained to meet the compliance requirements? Just keeping up with the applicable rules and their nuances is a full-time job.
The change and pressure is leading to the troubling side effect of stress, fatigue and burnout in physicians and associated staff.
A Strategy for Medical Practices to Address Burnout
Reevaluating and revamping processes ought to be the first step in addressing burnout and overtaxing clinical staff. Aside from hiring more personnel, your next best option is looking into healthcare billing services in your area.
Staffing requirements can be met by asking simple questions. If a task takes you away from direct patient care and it can be delegated to an external expertise, why wouldn’t outsourcing administrative functions be a viable option? This helps your physicians and staff focus on giving the best care while personnel that is trained to specifically look into administrative responsibilities will support your business.
The Approach
Prioritizing staff and where they spend their time and effort can mean that outsourcing of key tasks like healthcare billing, compliance to rules, etc. may be the need of the hour. Such companies would have the expertise and the bandwidth to keep track of the changing regulatory atmosphere while at the same time ensuring your practice’ full compliance.
Training of staff – if you can spare some – is another great area for outsourcing. An expert’s knowledge of the regulations and access to training material means you have an in-house staff that is trained to take up the new responsibility.
Delegating responsibility to an expert will mean the physicians and staff can spend time with patients, improving their care and service and an inherent satisfaction of a job well done. Even if an organization chooses to not outsource tasks, it can seek support to better understand what they can do and thus reduce physician burnout.
Horizon Revenue Solutions is a San Jose-based medical billing company. If you have any questions, please contact us, or give us a phone call at 408-444-8845Â
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