Improving patient payment through front desk staff training

Improving Your

Front Desk Staff Training

Poll Questions

Panelists

Debbie Tomlinson, CCSP, CPC, Business Office Supervisor

Valley Medical Center

Andrea CunninghamDirector of Services

HealthCo Information Systems

Jason PorterVice President

HealthCo Information Systems

Front Desk: Then vs. Now

Patient Billing “Hot Potato”

Setting up your Front Desk for Success

Build consistent processes for patient check in that are followed every time

Build out templates for the PM system process you want adhered to at check in

Identify “risky” coming in the day prior to set up Front Desk/Billing for conversations

Using your Practice Management System

What screen do your Front Desk staff work in while receiving patients?

If you are a Centricity customer, using the Registration Screen instead ofthe Schedule Screen will give your staff access to patient balance data.

When was the last time you sat with your Front Desk staff and observed theirworkflow?

Inspect what you expect…use audit reports

Financial Responsibility Agreements

Train Front Desk staff on the policy

Role play with the Front Desk staff: “Explain our Financial Responsibility Agreementto me like I am a patient.”

When was the last time you updated? Should be reviewed annually.

Stats Training Initiatives

13 Specialties 2 Week Initial Training

2 Locations Video tools

45 Providers Role Play

Over 140 staff Reinforcement

500-600 patient visits a day Evolve and retrain

25% reduction in collections largely due to increased front end collection

Year over year improvement in 0-30 day insurance aging

December 2012= 78%December 2013= 84%December 2014= 90%December 2015= 92%

Fundamentals of Role Playing/Training

Select a location in the clinic where you can work uninterrupted

Explain the “why?”

Use your best staff to train; replicate their behavior

Use role plays….they are uncomfortable, but they WORK

Start early in the training process for new staff

Reinforce training every 60-90 days

Fundamentals of Role Playing/Training

Topics to cover in training

Explaining the Financial Responsibility Statement

Responding to questions from patients (“Can I make a payment,What are my options if I can’t pay today?”)

Transitioning to billing when needed with discretion

“How would you like to take care of your balance” vs.“Can you make a payment today?”

Script Samples

Every practice is unique and must work on developing their own scripting

Front Desk and BillingCollaboration

Can your front desk easily access billing when they need help?

Instant messaging tool

Consider some form of cross-training so that each team understandsthe unique challenges of the other

Resources

• Common Mistakes Made When Training Staff Article

• Sample Scripts Questions

• 7 Best Practices for Employee Training

• HealthCo Blog on Training for Front Desk

DTomlinson@valleymedicalcenter.com

andreac@healthcosystems.com

jasonp@healthcosystems.com