Why Outsourcing Calls May Be Right for Your Practice
When considering aspects of office life to offload to third parties, a few things come to mind – chiefly medical billing, coding, denial management, and the like. But the revenue cycle isn’t the only area of your practice you can outsource. Increasingly, medical offices are capitalizing on new services to lessen the administrative burden on their staff.
A smart place to start is outsourcing inbound and outbound calls. It may seem peculiar to have your phones managed by folks outside your office walls, but there are several reasons outsourcing calls can be highly beneficial.
Fewer Interruptions
As the phones ring off the hook at your practice right now, imagine yourself in a medical office where the phones only ring for clinically important issues. Sounds pretty nice, right? It can be a reality!
If an outsourcing service handles all of your incoming calls for appointment scheduling, refills, bill paying, and other miscellaneous requests, you’ll enjoy far fewer disruptions to your workday. Plus, your patients will be less likely to wait on hold while you tend to in-person patient issues or deal with other interruptions.
More Staffing Power
A call outsourcing service is typically much more cost-effective than having a full-time employee manning the phones. That leaves you with options: You can lower your staffing load or use your freed-up personnel to help with patient-focused tasks.
If you choose the latter, you’ll likely reap the benefits of higher employee satisfaction. Typically, handling calls is one of a medical practice staffer’s least favorite duties.
Less Room for Error
At a busy practice, menial but important tasks like appointment reminder calls can easily fall through the cracks. Who gets held accountable when that happens? At most, you likely give your clerical staffers a metaphorical slap on the wrist.
When you’re paying a service to make those calls for you, however, there’s no way they’re going to slip up. Better yet, you can work with a tech-powered phone service to have robo-calls or text reminders handled automatically – eliminating all room for error.
Lower Costs, More Revenue
We’ve already mentioned that outsourcing calls can be less expensive than hiring someone to make and answer them, but it can also help you bring in more money than you currently are. Think about the missed appointments you can attribute to the missed reminder calls mentioned above. When they’re made, you’ll be more likely to get your patients in the door for billable encounters.
Plus, if your staff spends more time working with patients and less time stuck on the phones, it may boost your capacity to serve a larger population. (Or maybe the cost savings will free up the funds in your budget needed to bring in another nurse or non-physician practitioner.) Boosting your bottom line while keeping your office more quiet… sounds like a smart medical practice solution to us!
{{cta('c653b7ab-f777-451f-87f3-8fc885eed779','justifycenter')}}
Are you interested in learning more medical billing tips? Visit our blog!
