Back to Work
Published January 20, 2012 | 
Now that the holidays are over it is time we go back to work and prepare for a new year. And that means that almost everyone will owe another yearly deductible, may have changed insurances, may owe more for copays and most offices renew every patient’s signatures on the billing and authorization forms. The Front Office, Admission, Registration people will need to be spend a little bit more time with each patient to ensure that they have updated copies of the patient’s insurance cards, their photo ids, addresses and phone numbers.
Surprisingly, more and more people are changing their phone numbers on a fairly regular basis and holidays are the time that most phone companies are offering better deals to switch services. And, more and more people are turning off their land-lines and just using cell-phones as their main contact numbers. Updating a person’s contact information is very important not only for the Front Office Personnel to call and confirm appointments but the doctors and nurses may need to call the patient with results and, of course, the billing and collection people may need to call the patient about their balances.
When asking for a patient’s deductible payment prior to services you will need to know if they have received services anywhere else prior to the appointment with your office. Some patients may have already gone to the Emergency Room for services and depending on the timing, their billing practices, and even the deductible amount the patient may have already met their deductible with that visit. Most of your patients will have changed their insurances and/or their copayment amounts may have increased, as with everything else.
You will need to encourage patients to confirm that they are still within their network prior to making an appointment with your office. And if not, the least you can do is confirm it for them. There is nothing worse that finding out when you arrive or when you leave your appointment that you owe more than you have planned. Training your scheduling personnel in helping the patients with this information prior to scheduling saves a lot of misunderstanding and bad public relations.
Happy Holidays
Published December 10, 2011 | Happy Holidays to all of our readers here at the Medical Office Clerk Informational Blog. We hope you and yours have a safe and happy one. Don’t forget to make those New Year’s Resolutions. Your comments and suggestions from our legitimate subscribers have been interesting. For all those spammers out there: TAKE THE YEAR OFF!
This year has been a hard one for most of us with turbulent and stressful times and situations. We hope you will take some time and spend it with your family and friends. When the new year starts we resolve to post more articles, keep up with our education and seek out new opportunities for growth in our chosen field!
See Ya Next Year!
Getting Ready for the New Year
Published November 3, 2011 | As Patient Access Reps we are required to keep up-to-date on all the changes and updates happening with various insurance plans that we deal with everyday. That includes doctor’s office personnel and hospital accounts receivable or financial accounting members. The easiest way is to have each of the major insurance websites bookmarked so that you can find the information for the coming year at your fingertips. Medicare has posted the changes for 2012 here: http://www.medicare.gov/cost/
Traditional Medicare Patient Costs beginning January 2012:
Part B Deductible (Doctor’s Office and Outpatient Hospital services)
Pay $140 per year and then 20% for most services
Hospital Inpatient Stay You pay:
$1,156 deductible per benefit period
$0 for the first 60 days of each benefit period
$289 per day for days 61-90 of each benefit period
$578 per “lifetime reserve day” after day 90 of each benefit period
(up to a maximum of 60 days over your lifetime)
Medicare Advantage Plans Example of Patient Costs:
Tricare Patient Costs Beginning October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012:
(Go to the Tricare Website to Get the Complete Information)
These are just two of the most seen insurances in our area but they are good examples of what you will encounter with the rest of them. You will need to make a listing of your most popular insurances that your company encounters with their copays as the patients come after the first of the year. Good Luck and Happy Holidays in the coming months.
Further Your Education
Published October 20, 2011 | Let’s face it, we all get into this line of work to make money. It is a job and some of us even make it a career. There are literally hundreds of different educational opportunities out there to learn how to do this job or portions of it. I learned this job the hard way..by doing it and keeping myself abreast of changes happening around me. But with today’s economy and the problems that we face everyday learning a new career or getting more education in your current career is now a necessity rather than a luxury. Keep yourself abreast of the current requirements in your job, read articles about how to improve yourself in your job, take a class online, and take advantage of any educational opportunities offered by your current employer. These are the things that we really need to do in order to keep the money rolling into the family coffers.
If you are really serious about getting a new job or even keeping your current job you will need to pay for some of that education yourself. Yes, it is nice to get reimbursed for education expenses but more and more companies are making it harder for their employees to seek a new degree or get certified in a new field. I know it is all “economics” and companies trying to improve their “bottom-line” but that is the point. They are looking out for themselves and not necessarily their employees. So, join a business social network like LinkedIn and become a part of some of the groups there in your field. Network with the people and participate in the discussions. There are lots of different groups on this website that talk about Patient Access Reps duties, new legislation, and improvements needed in the field. You can even view new job opportunities that are available now that you can apply for but most importantly you can talk to some of the people who are doing the hiring at these facilities, get to know them, what they are looking for in employees and read about some of the ways they keep themselves educated in this field.
FYI, for those of you who haven’t visited our bookstore, please check it out, we have combed through the Amazon website for books, reference material and software that is pertinent to our chosen field: http://medicalofficeclerk.info/wordpress/medical-office-clerk-bookstore/
Here is an example of just one of the reference materials available in the bookstore: