To successfully perform medical invoicing or medical billing there has to be a degree of focus on the task itself.
In fact, there has to be a total concentration on the expected outcome. But what is the outcome
The outcome is always the same. Getting an invoice paid. The total focus must be applied to this outcome at the expense of other items. Making sure the private consultant surgeon is paid is the task and therefore total focus must be on that. The problem arises when the total focus is not possible.
For example: in the middle of invoicing for 12 consultations and 4 medical episodes on behalf of a private consultant surgeon the telephone rings. More often than that, however, is an email alert pinging up! Even worse than that is the person responsible for medical billing decides, as they don’t really enjoy doing that specific task, and do something else instead. The other distraction from focus is, of course, other people’s demands.
MHM once had a client who one morning called 8 times within 35 minutes and then afterward complained his medical billing wasn’t being done speedily enough. It didn’t take a genius to work out that the 8 phone calls were actually a total distraction from raising the very invoices he expected to be raised during the morning.
It doesn’t really matter what the distraction is even though with modern technology advancing so much over the years, the likelihood of distractions has increased ten-fold. For example, I may be in the middle of a task and my mobile pings to say an email has arrived. It may also ping because a text has arrived. The opportunity for distraction(s) is enormous. Yet these distractions can remove focus from the planned outcome.
They can stop processing an invoice correctly, resolving an issue that is preventing an invoice getting paid or they can even stop an invoice being raised in the first place.
Modern technology is great. It enables MHM to communicate with its clients speedily and efficiently. It enables clients to provide data to MHM equally efficiently. It also enables MHM to raise invoices electronically and deliver them to a private medical insurance company at the push of a button. But it can also be a blessing in disguise if MHM were to let it distract from focusing on the job in hand. Thus it is worth repeating that the planned out is for the private medical professional to get paid. That is what MHM is there for; nothing else.
If the technology on occasion stops that, then remove the technology for a while.
This may sound revolutionary but in the real world, ignoring technology when the technology actually prevents achieving the planned outcome is not as silly as it sounds.
For example: when I’m raising medical invoices for a client – every single morning invoices are processed at MHM – I switch my email off. Thus there are no distractions caused by emails arriving. Before anyone raises the question of an email being important, may I suggest that in reality whilst emails may indeed be important seldom are they time critical? They are normally requests for data, asking a question or the arrival of a remittance from an insurance company.
All three examples are important but they are not, despite what people may claim, time critical.
My favourite example of this is the person who was tasked with locating new premises for MHM and emailed me one morning last year but when I didn’t immediately respond, telephone after 15 minutes to confirm if I had received his email. This despite the instruction to email details to me and being advised I would respond later that week. As he couldn’t even follow that instruction, he immediately lost the opportunity of finding new offices for MHM!
The world will not end and a private medical practice won’t immediately collapse if an email, a phone call or even a text are not immediately responded to.
That is not to say a patient inquiry should not be immediately answered. In the case of a patient calling then absolutely they should. Have someone designated to answer the phone. It look’s awful if a patient calls and the phone isn’t answered.
But don’t have the same person responsible for medical billing AT THE SAME TIME for if you do the phone calls and/emails will provide the distraction to caused the planned outcome to be missed.
Medical billing is not the easiest thing to do in the world. It requires concentration and an attention to detail. If the outcome is expected to be prompt and complete payment of an invoice for medical services, then focus should be directed to just that. You know what happens if I switch my email off during the morning or I have the text alert set to silent? Nothing.
Except I raise numerous invoices for clients, resolve issues with insurance companies and make sure MHM clients are paid.
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk
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