If you’re a medical practitioner, handling all of your patients’ needs can be overwhelming. This is especially true if you have a large number of patients who visit you for consultations. On top of that, you have to manage your employees and deal with the day-to-day responsibilities that running a practice entails. The truth of the matter is, there may not always be enough time in a day for these tasks. An outsourced healthcare call center can help solve this problem by allowing you and your employees to focus on what’s truly important: patient care.
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An outsourced healthcare call center provides a convenient, professional way to communicate with patients.
It’s important that patients feel they’re being listened to and cared for by the medical practice they trust with their health. A call center provides a convenient, professional way for them to communicate with you and ask questions about their treatment plan, schedule appointments or simply check on their visit status.
The best outsourced healthcare call centers are staffed by experts who have medical knowledge themselves or are likewise considered professionals in other areas of client servicing processes, such as medical billing and insurance.
Additionally, these centers operate 24/7, so even if your clinic is closed for the day, your patients can still be accommodated and able to receive top-notch service from whoever receives their call.
An outsourced healthcare call center will help you cut costs.
Having a dedicated outsourced healthcare call center to handle administrative tasks for your practice can be hugely beneficial for your finances. For one thing, you don’t have to worry about the hiring and training of new employees as your service provider can already handle the process for you. They would also take care of paying for their salaries and benefits, which again frees you up to focus on your core services and your in-house employees that handle them.
As your savings and business grow, so shall your offshore team as you can easily scale up and make adjustments with them when needed.
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An outsourced healthcare call center can help you better manage your workforce and operations.
Outsourcing your call center allows you to focus on what really matters — patient care.
As a medical practitioner, you know that your mission is to deliver the highest quality of care to your patients. You want them to feel comfortable and confident in their experience with your practice, and this means providing excellent customer service across all areas of operation. However, as with any other type of business, there are back-office tasks that need to be attended to. Hiring people to handle these tasks in-house puts additional strain on your practice’s resources and staff.
Outsourcing these services gives you and your team peace of mind knowing that someone else can take care of these things, allowing you to deliver the best medical services possible to your patients.
These are just some of the many customer service and back-office tasks you can outsource to a healthcare call center:
● Hotline service
Emergencies happen all the time, and they can’t be confined to the regular work hours of most clinics and medical centers. A 24/7 hotline service is the best solution to help patients receive the care they need at all hours of the day and night.
● Appointment setting
There are actually a lot of things involved when setting up appointments for medical practices. Depending on the complexity of the patient’s case, this may require dealing with physician referrals, insurance verification, and laboratory procedure requests, among others.
An outsourced healthcare call center will have dedicated experts (medical transcriptionists, medical coders, accounting staff, medical billers and collectors, insurance eligibility verifiers) who can properly deal with these scenarios, freeing up your in-house staff from such tasks.
● Medical transcription and data entry
Accuracy in documentation is a must when running a business, more so in medical practice because health and the wellness of patients are at stake.
Make sure you’re not missing out on any details so that you’re able to give the best care to your patients. Having error-free records also makes for easier processing of claims, medical billing, etc.
● Healthcare insurance verification
Different insurance providers have different rules for different cases. An outsourced healthcare call center can be counted on to do the necessary steps to verify a patient’s insurance details and coverage.
● Healthcare claims management
Claims management is an important back-office task where thoroughness and accuracy are essential. You can rest easy if you have a good service provider that will deal with the process and help avoid potential headaches such as claim denials.
● Customer care
Part of providing excellent patient care is having a dedicated line or portal for patients to share their experiences, whether positive or negative. You can take their responses to see which services are meeting their needs and which ones require improvement.
An outsourced healthcare call center ensures compliance with industry regulations.
Medical practices are governed by laws that ensure patients receive the best healthcare delivery while keeping their information confidential and protected. One of these is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Essentially, the law serves to increase the mobility of health insurance, protect the privacy of patients and health plan members, increase the efficiency of the healthcare sector, guarantee the security of health information, and notify patients of data breaches.
The best healthcare call centers will ensure that their clients are complying with the law by having strong security systems and experts that follow protocols.
There’s no question about it: Outsourcing your healthcare call center is a smart move to make for your medical practice.
It can help you save money, manage your workforce, and focus on delivering excellent patient care.
If you’re struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for your services, outsourcing is the answer. With a call center, you can focus on providing quality care to your patients without needing to worry about the day-to-day operations of running a call center.
References
“How an Outsourced Medical Call Center Supports a Healthcare Facility | Outsource Accelerator.” Outsource Accelerator, https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/articles/medical-call-center/.
“Why Consider Outsourcing to a Healthcare Call Center.” Magellan Solutions, https://www.facebook.com/MagellanCareers/, 18 Aug. 2020, https://www.magellan-solutions.com/blog/healthcare-call-center/.
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