It’s been a cloudy, rainy week for us at Power Your Practice – a rarity here at our Miami headquarters. To counteract the gloominess outside, we spent the last few days shining light on a wealth of ways for you to improve your practice.

We hope the material, ranging from a piece illuminating the pervasiveness of outdated EHR code to an article on how casting light on your pricing can help your patients, brightened up your week.

Is MUMPS Infecting EHRs?
MUMPS is a programming language created in the 1960s that’s still widely used in healthcare information systems today, despite the advancement of most other sectors toward cloud-based IT. If it’s not soon phased out of product development, it could stagnate the potential for true interoperability in healthcare.

3 Phases of RCM: Use Best Practices to Improve Performance
To figure out if your practice is running as efficiently and cost-effectively as possibly, you must break down the revenue cycle, take a critical look at each phase, and work to track, measure and improve your metrics. Learn what “Best Practice” goals to aim for to ensure you collect top-line reimbursements and achieve optimal performance.

Transparent Pricing: Make Costs Clear to Enhance Care
Patients, for better or worse, are making fiscally motivated healthcare decisions. Adapting to today’s cost-driven healthcare environment can prove beneficial – not just for patients, but for providers, too. This article points out why and how to make your practice a leader in healthcare cost clarity.

The End of EMR: Why One Letter Matters
This third installment of “The End of EMR” series lays out the ONC’s definitions of “electronic medical record” and “electronic health record” to highlight the EHR’s superiority once and for all! To learn even more about what makes an EHR a better electronic records solution, download our full EHR whitepaper.

The 6 Building Blocks of High-Performing Primary Care
The California HealthCare Foundation performed extensive research to figure out what differentiated highly effective, team-focused primary care practices from their peers. The six notable characteristics they discovered are introduced in this article and fully illuminated in CHCF’s engaging “Building Blocks” report, available here.

We at PYP hope you have a very sunny weekend – wherever you are! While you’re enjoying your days away from the office, visit Power Your Practice on Facebook and let us know what issues you’d like us to shine some light on in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading!

Primary care in the U.S. is undergoing a transformation — from physician-centered practices to patient-focused teams. An outpouring of energy, thought, and work has gone into this transformation, and a clear picture of this new primary care practice is emerging.

To understand how practices are approaching the creation of a successful patient-centered medical home, the research team of the California HealthCare Foundation conducted site visits and extensive interviews with the leadership and all levels of staff at seven high-performing primary care practices.

For the purposes of the research, high-performing practices are defined as those with high levels of patient and staff satisfaction, clinical quality metrics that have improved over time, and a stable financial base.

Through the studies of the California HealthCare Foundation’s team, six notable characteristics of the seven high-performing practices emerged, which are proving to be the building blocks of this new model of health care delivery:

1. Data-driven improvement. High-performing practices collect, clean, and summarize performance data, which are used by clinicians and staff in all corners of the organization to drive effective action.

2. Empanelment and panel size management. High-performing clinics assign patients to a clinician and team in the process of empanelment, and they actively manage panel size, balancing capacity and demand so that continuity of care and access can be sustained.

3. Team-based care. Teams – including clinicians, medical assistants, registered nurses, front desk personnel, and behaviorists – are created, and all members are responsible for the quality of patient care. Effective teams rely on an explicit vision and clear principles, the same team members working together almost every day in a shared space, defined workflows, established channels of communication, training and cross-training to build skills, ground rules, and clinician-approved standing orders

4. Population management. Population management addresses the needs of various subgroups of the patient population. Practices provide panel management to support the preventive care needs of all patients. They provide self-management support, or health coaching, to patients with chronic diseases. Patients with complicated medical and psychosocial needs receive a different level of care – complex care management.

5. Continuity of care. Continuity improves quality of care, improves the patient’s experience, and lowers costs. To ensure continuity of care, practices require clinicians to work a minimum number of hours and days each week, train front desk personnel to encourage continuity in scheduling, and actively control panel size to ensure that demand does not exceed supply.

6. Prompt access to care. A high priority for patients, timely access to care is difficult to achieve without managing panel size to balance capacity and demand, and building teams that add new capacity. Practices improve access by opening their schedule for only a few weeks at a time, spacing visits by taking care of more needs each time, and offering visits through multiple channels, such as phone, web-based patient portals, group visits, and visits with non-clinician team members, such as registered nurses or medical assistants.

The practices visited are remarkably similar in their implementation of these primary care building blocks. At their core, high-performing primary care practices require a functioning data system that is used to drive improvement, the empanelment of patients to a clinician or team with a reasonable panel size, and stable teams with the same people working together on a regular basis.

These three central building blocks – which enable the other building blocks to be successfully put in place – have allowed these practices to transform into patient-centered medical homes and ultimately, to provide better care for their patients.

To learn more about the qualities of excellent primary care organizations, download the full report on “The Building Blocks of High-Performing Primary Care: Lessons from the Field.”

The content above was written by Rachel Willard, MPH and Tom Bodenheimer, MD and used with permission of the California HealthCare Foundation 2012.

While only one letter differentiates EHR and EMR, that little variation makes a big difference. Oftentimes the two terms are used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.

To elucidate the differences in the two system types, explain why EHRs make it easier to attest for Meaningful Use, and illuminate how they can improve patient management and outcomes, Power Your Practice is parsing out the technological disparities between EMRs and EHRs in the “End of EMR” article series.

The word sandwiched between electronic and record in each term changes the meaning of the phrase – with the main differences being comprehensiveness of the record and interoperability.

Definition of EMR
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) defines an EMR as “a digital version of the paper charts in the clinician’s office. An EMR contains the medical and treatment history of the patients in one practice.”

EMRs provide some advantages over paper charts, such as:

• Data tracking over time
• The ability to quickly identify patients due for preventive screenings or checkups
• Tracking patient parameters like blood pressure results or vaccinations
• Monitoring and improving the quality of patient care within the practice

However, these advantages are confined to the single practice where the EMR is being used. Patient records aren’t easily shared outside of the practice and may even have to be printed and mailed to specialists or other care providers, creating opportunities for mistakes and delays in the care process.

Definition of EHR
The ONC states that EHRs provide all the benefits of EMRs plus the interoperability necessary for diverse systems to work together:

EHRs focus on the total health of the patient—going beyond standard clinical data collected in the provider’s office and inclusive of a broader view on a patient’s care. EHRs are designed to reach out beyond the health organization that originally collects and compiles the information. They are built to share information with other health care providers, such as laboratories and specialists, so they contain information from all the clinicians involved in the patient’s care.

The ability to easily create, manage and share patient data across separate organizations will streamline health care, reduce redundancies and improve patient outcomes. Providing the best care possible for patients requires teamwork – and EHRs provide a secure way for clinicians, pharmacies and patients to work together toward better outcomes.

Incorporating all of the participants in the healthcare team – including the patient – into the healthcare process is one of the key expectations of the Stage-1 Meaningful Use requirements. Qualifying for the EHR Incentive Program will be much easier with a Meaningful Use certified EHR than with an outdated EMR system.

In our closing entry to the End of EMR series next week, we’ll outline the tangible benefits to collaboration, continuity of care, practice mobility and patient engagement that users enjoy in EHRs.

Can’t wait seven days? Download the End of EMR whitepaper, which details “Why Meaningful Use & Continuity of Care Depend on Electronic Health Records,” today.

Despite the vital significance of health and wellness in patients’ lives, evidence is proving that in the modern economic environment, one of the biggest decision-making factors people face regarding healthcare and treatment is not medically motivated – it’s financial.

Research from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics found that visits to the doctor by U.S. patients fell 4.7 percent from 2010 to 2011. The number of prescriptions issued declined by 1.1 percent. The reason? Patients are cutting back on healthcare spending due to financial hardship.

A contrasting indicator of why that decreased care is so detrimental can found in the same research: emergency room visits increased 7.4 percent in 2011.

It’s important for providers to acknowledge that, for better or worse, patients today are making fiscally motivated healthcare decisions. Additionally, adapting to this cost-driven healthcare environment can prove beneficial for both doctors and their patients.

Leading the Way in Cost Clarity
Influencers are emerging that already embrace this financial approach to care.

“Now that it’s no longer a given that insurance simply will cover the bulk of the care they receive, patients also are taking responsibility for seeking value in healthcare, and they increasingly have more tools to do so,” writes Debra Beaulieu of Fierce Practice Management.

Castlight Health, a healthcare IT startup that’s made major headlines of late, was founded to help consumers find better quality care at a lower price. The company seeks to “cast light” on health care pricing – an area where too little transparency currently exists – in part to aid employers and patients with high-deductible health plans.

Even insurance companies are getting in on the price-illumination idea. Cigna offers online cost-searching features to consumers, as well as tools that enable users to estimate the differing costs associated with obtaining a procedure at one hospital versus another.

A Shifting Mentality Toward Health Expenses
Treating patients as consumers is a touchy subject among some in the healthcare industry, but this trend could prove to be incredibly positive. Experts cite the growth of cost comparing tools as part of an overall shift toward low-cost, value-based care.

Along with the increased attention being given to preventive care – a result of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, since it requires health plans to cover wellness exams at no charge to the insured – this push toward transparency in pricing is working to lower overall healthcare costs.

A recent Thomson Reuters report estimated that $36 billion could be saved annually if the 108 million Americans with employer coverage performed some healthcare “comparison shopping” on more than 300 common medical procedures.

Encourage Care with a Clear Approach to Costs
Providing your patients with clear pricing data can do more than help your practice contribute to lowering the costs of care: it can encourage better healthcare outcomes by making expectations more comprehensible.

Patients – especially those without insurance – are more likely to seek treatment or visit the doctor when they know what they might be in for financially. Even a patient who is covered may avoid the doctor if she has a high-deductible plan, health savings account, or tiered arrangement in which her employer only pays a specified percentage of the cost of a given procedure.

Consider adding a pricing page to your practice website. Demystifying this aspect of your business shows both existing and potential patients that you appreciate the costs they undertake for their health, and that there’s nothing to be afraid of when it comes to medical expenses. That straightforward, accessible approach can give you a competitive advantage over practices that are less up-font about pricing.

Being candid about healthcare costs can also make it easier to collect from your patients. If your prices, along with common reimbursement rates, are clearly displayed or otherwise acknowledged in your office, it is much harder for your patients to claim they didn’t understand what they’d owe you and dodge their bills as a result.

Healthcare costs shouldn’t be a taboo topic at a doctor’s office. Transparent pricing has the power to improve outcomes, lower costs and grow your patient base – all while helping patients access care with less concern.

Get comfortable with upfront pricing policies – for your patients’ sake and your practice’s success.

How do you address healthcare costs in your practice?

Want to learn how else you can improve your patients’ financial encounters with your practice? Click here.

Are you collecting what you should from insurance companies? Is your office being managed as cost-effectively as possible?

The key to answering “yes” to both of these questions lies in applying industry best practices to your office’s revenue cycle, according to experts at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

Your practice’s revenue cycle is the same as at every other practice: It starts when a patient sets an appointment and it ends with final payment resolution – and there are too many opportunities along the way where simple mistakes will cost you money. Break down the revenue cycle, take a critical look at each phase, and get ready to track, measure and improve the metrics.

Whether you do your own billing and collections or use an outside billing service, employing the following recommended best practices at each phase of RCM can result in an increase in overall collections, a reduction in expenses/overhead and, most importantly, improved control over the business side of your practice.

Revenue Cycle Phase 1: Setting Appointments & Capturing Patient Demos

• Aim for an error-free front desk: Your software should support efficient collection of patient demographic data and insurance info. Develop office policies and train your staff well, because the battle to get paid is won – or lost – by your front desk.
• Track and balance appointments: From check-in to posted encounter, your practice management software should ensure that all patient appointments are accounted for and no charges are lost.
• Use electronic insurance eligibility: Your practice management system’s appointment scheduler should have automatic eligibility verification built in and included at no additional charge. You should verify two to four days prior to an appointment.
• Utilize template-driven scheduling: Your time is your most valuable asset. Use your software’s templates to make the most of your office days.

Revenue Cycle Phase 2: Capturing Charges & Submitting Claims

• Charge capture from EHR minimizes manual input: Charge data should be automatically pushed from your EHR to your practice management system so that claims can be prepared, even if your EHR is from a different vendor than your PM system.
• Minimize denials on first submission: Your software’s rules engine should be dynamic and keep up with changes in payer rules and policies. The goal is to cut the percentage of claims that are denied on first submission, which can only be done by actively managing a rules engine.
• File claims electronically, and file daily: Balance claim submissions against practice management totals and automate the separation of claims that require attachments.
• Track amount billed against expected collection (value of claim based on payer contract) at the time of claim submission: Your practice’s goal is to be paid 100 percent for each claim, based on the particular payer contract.

Revenue Cycle Phase 3: Remittance Posting, Collections & Data Analysis

• Use electronic remittance whenever possible: Post the full adjudication, including amount approved, paid, disallowed, deductible, co-insurance, co-payment, etc., as well as all denials. Make sure your software allows you to delay posting, if necessary, to help balance against bank totals.
• Manage denied claims aggressively: Identify A/R (detail and summary) under denial status from your practice management system. Another benefit: Learn sooner if there are new payer rules in effect that are delaying your reimbursements.
• Manage “no-response” claims quickly: Age claims nightly to track ignored or lost claims and save a potentially wasted phone call to a payer.
• Track underpayments and downcoding in real-time: Claim by claim, your practice should compare approved amounts to your payer contracts.
• Track write-offs and adjustments in real-time: Don’t wait for weekly reports or monthly totals. Also, make sure you have real-time visibility into refunds to guard against embezzlement.
• Data analysis: Data should be transparent and easy to access, especially if your system is Internet-based. Focus on a few metrics that allow you to compare “apples to apples” and track these diligently. Here are three good ones:

  - Net collection rate: The percentage collected relative to your contract (should always be at or nearly 100%).
  - DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), also known as Payment Velocity: How many days on average is it taking you to get paid.
  - First Pass Resolution Rate (FPRR): Percent of your claims paid appropriately on first submission.

How does your practice optimize the revenue cycle?

Brian Foster is a Director of Client Solutions at CareCloud with over 20+ years in the healthcare industry. Throughout the 1990s he was the Publisher of a specialized trade paper for healthcare industry professionals. Since 2001, Brian has worked as a senior business development professional, helping medical practices to provide the highest-quality patient care while simultaneously improving revenues. He can be reached at BFoster@carecloud.com or (786) 879-9200.

The word ‘mumps’ has two meanings in the healthcare industry. Most popularly, mumps is a virus characterized by a painful swelling of the salivary glands, and is rather contagious.

Its other usage is an acronym for Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, a programming language that is almost equally contagious among healthcare IT companies.

However, not every health IT professional understands why so many electronic health records are still written using the language. Below we question the effectiveness of the MUMPS programming language.

Why Has MUMPS Survived This Long?
MUMPS was created in the late 1960s, which represents centuries in terms of technology. The language was adopted during the next two decades in healthcare and financial information databases. Even in the 2000s, a number of commercial EHR vendors are pushing systems written in MUMPS.

In 2011, the Axial Project wondered why MUMPS has been so effective in the healthcare field, attributing its success to the reliability of legacy applications. This makes for an innovation drought in the industry.

In other words, it may not be a question of why MUMPS has survived. We should instead address why innovation is so stagnated in healthcare IT.

Is MUMPS Valuable?
At first glance, enough commercial electronic health record companies are using MUMPS to justify its value. However, a huge portion of these promote client-server EHRs, which a number of industry professionals predict will fade in light of cloud-based systems.

MUMPS proponents often cite the B-Tree data structure as a testament to the language, admiring its elegance, quickness and scalability. Still, the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated the amount of worldwide storage data will reach 2502 exabytes (or 1 million terabytes) by the end of this year.

Can MUMPS handle the issues related to the heavy access log and data storage and searching issues resulting from this enormous amount of data?

If MUMPS is stagnating innovation, it’s important to find an alternative. Many industry professionals believe NoSQL could work well as a viable substitute, and an increasing number of more lightweight and inventive EHR systems are being carved out using Ruby.

MUMPS and Interoperability
A number of industry professionals believe MUMPS will be weeded out as doctors and hospitals continue to implement electronic health records, namely because MUMPS-based systems don’t play nice with EHRs written in other languages. There is a reason why the Silicon Valley folks aren’t too fond of the language.

If MUMPS truncates communication between systems, then it hinders interoperability, a cornerstone of EHR adoption. One of the goals of health IT is to avoid insularity, so unless your practice or hospital’s goal is to adopt a client-server enterprise system with limited scalability – and you don’t care much for interoperability – MUMPS may be an option for you.

But it doesn’t have a place in the future of healthcare.

Do you know what language your electronic health record is written in? If you’ve yet to purchase a system, we recommend you learn about these kinds of matters and more via our EHR Buying Guide!

Healthcare is an industry with a wealth of women moving it forward. Among the ranks of doctors, nurses, administrators and other healthcare professionals across the world are thousands of women and many, many mothers (including mine!) working hard on both the business and clinical sides of the medical industry.

With Mother’s Day and Women’s Health Week soon upon us, we at Power Your Practice want to thank all of the mothers and daughters reading for all that they do, for the healthcare industry and for their families. We hope that the advice we provided here at PYP this week has helped make your days at the medical practice a little easier.

What Patients Like About EHRs
By engaging patients in their own care, EHRs can improve health outcomes and give patients a sense of comfort and security. When they facilitate better care, EHRs prove massively beneficial to patients and physicians.

Could Remote Employees Enhance Productivity at Your Practice?
Healthcare hasn’t always been a natural fit for telecommuting. As the industry grows more technologically connected, though, the trend is gaining steam and proving to be beneficial for many medical practices.

How to Improve the Billing Experience for Your Patients
Allowing patients’ billing issues to go unresolved is a surefire way to lessen (or even ruin) their overall perception of your practice. Appoint someone to act as a patient advocate or “billing liaison” to keep your patients from experiencing frustration.

The End of EMR: As Go CDs, So Go EMRs
There’s a strong, unexpected parallel between the changing means used to commercially deliver music and the changing technology of health IT. Download the End of EMR whitepaper to learn more about the evolution of medical records.

Quick Billing Tip: Boxes 12 & 13 on the CMS 1500 Form
Tempting as it may be to absentmindedly fill in these fields, you may be risking a denial if you complete them incorrectly. Get the proper documentation to keep billing errors from stalling your cash flow.

Thanks for reading and happy Mother’s Day from Power Your Practice!

Follow PYP on Twitter for practice management, health IT and medical billing updates every day of the week.

Boxes 12 & 13 on the CMS 1500 form are very important but are often overlooked.  By overlooked, I mean that most medical billers don’t understand the importance of the boxes and just blindly fill them in.

It is important to understand what these fields ask for and to make sure they are filled in appropriately, because they can seriously affect claims payment if not completed properly.

Box 12 is the “release of information” box. Many billers think that if you don’t have to release any information, you can just leave this blank. Others think you just stick “signature on file” there and you’re good. Well, neither is correct.

Many carriers will not release payment if this box is empty. But just sticking “signature on file” in there is not correct either. You really need to know that the patient’s signature is on file.

The patient should have signed a release of information statement when he or she first came in. It is usually part of the initial paperwork that he or she completes. In any case, this is an important box that you need to pay attention to, so you’ll want to make sure this statement is completed by patients when they first come into your office.

Box 13 is the “authorization of payment of medical benefits to the provider of service.” If this box is completed, the patient is indicating that they want any payments for the services being billed to be sent directly to the provider. This doesn’t guarantee that the insurance carrier will send payment to the provider, but it indicates that the patient gives them permission to do so.

For example, if the provider is not in-network, the insurance carrier may send payment directly to the patient – even if this box is completed. And, if the provider is in-network but this box is not completed, it is possible that payment could go to the patient. So again, if you have the patient’s authorization for payment to be made to the provider, you should make sure this box is completed to help ensure that you receive payment for services from the payer.

What issues have you encountered on the CMS 1500 form?

Alice Scott and Michele Redmond are medical billing experts, co-owners of Solutions Medical Billing Inc in Rome, N Y., and coauthors of 15 books on medical billing and medical credentialing. Their newest title is Advanced Medical Billing Marketing for the New Economy.

This mother-and-daughter team maintains two medical billing websites, a free newsletter and an active forum. Alice and Michele are on the editorial staff of BC Advantage and are regular contributors to the magazine. Their books are available at www.medicalbillinglive.com.

Throughout much of the healthcare industry, the terms EMR and EHR are still used interchangeably. At Power Your Practice, we think that’s a problem.

The differences between electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) are immense and significant. To elucidate their disparities, explain why EHRs make it easier to attest for Meaningful Use, and illuminate how they can improve patient management and outcomes, we’re parsing out the evolution of digital records in the “End of EMR” article series.

There’s a strong, unexpected parallel between the changing means used to commercially deliver music and the changing technology of health IT. Read on to gain increased insight into why EMRs are going the way of compact discs.

Records, Discs and Clouds
Like the paper chart, the album was an early delivery mechanism for information. It was great for listening to music in one place but it could easily be broken or scratched, making it difficult to transport and share. Finding the exact song you wanted was somewhat challenging. If you wanted to listen to your music somewhere else, you had to delicately load your albums into a crate or bag, lug them around and protect them.

Compact discs provided a compressed version of the record that was easier to transport, gave greater access to specific files and delivered a clearer sound. As with an EMR, transporting data was still challenging, but the carrying case wasn’t as large. Music could be better protected and transported, and you could make copies to share with friends, but those CDs still had to be delivered manually.

With the advent of digital music, the way we store, transport, share and enjoy our music changed forever. Services like iTunes warehouse your music in the cloud, much like an EHR does with health records, giving you nearly unlimited storage and access to any and all of your content anywhere you are.

You can listen to your favorite artists on your computer, phone, tablet and/or TV. Cloud-based storage protects your music files from physical damage, makes them easily transportable and gives you greater access to enjoy and share them.

Utilizing EHRs to share information and collaborate in real time provides a complete picture of a patient’s health, instead of forcing you to manually pass pieces back and forth between the care team.

Still unconvinced of the advantages of an electronic health record? Come back next week, when we’ll provide you with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s definitions of EMR and EHR to highlight the differing capabilities of the two technologies.

Can’t wait seven days? Download the End of EMR whitepaper, which details “Why Meaningful Use & Continuity of Care Depend on Electronic Health Records,” today.

If a patient calls your practice asking for directions to your office, the receptionist can provide them. If he has a concern about his medication, your nurse is almost always able to resolve it. If he shows up asking if his pesky cough is a symptom of strep throat, the doctor can give him an answer.

But what happens if that patient telephones to ask about the charges on his last statement? In many a practice, that call ends unresolved.

Unacceptable – But All Too Common
Ask around to your friends and family – it’s highly likely that more than one of them can recount an unpleasant billing-issue experience of some sort: spending months getting an incorrect charge wiped from a bill; fighting inappropriate insurance denials to no avail; or being repeatedly promised a return call that never comes.

Allowing patients to get tied up in the red tape of your medical billing process is a surefire way to lessen (or even ruin) their overall perception of your practice. Even if they love the treatment they receive from your doctors, nurses and clerical staffers, patients who get the runaround when it comes to billing are certainly not likely to give you a positive review on HealthGrades or recommend your practice to a friend.

In a focus group conducted by HealthCPA, 81 percent of patients surveyed reported anger and frustration with medical bills and, according to the Association of Oncology Social Work, over 50 percent of cancer patients say that their medical bills have had a negative impact on their recovery.

The Root of the Problem
Clearly, billing issues can impact patient outcomes, so resolving them should be important to every employee at every practice – from the MDs to the front desk. So why is it so common for staffer after staffer to dodge those calls or attempt to pass them off to someone else?

The reasons abound. Practices that outsource their medical billing operations are frequent offenders, since they may not have any billing experts around to understand patient charges.

But even offices with in-house billing departments can be guilty of this oversight. If all of your staff members have been trained to take ownership of their individual work, they may not feel comfortable answering questions about a claim or statement processed by a coworker.

It also doesn’t help that, whether they cover your reception desk, handle patient scheduling or take care of coding, your administrative employees are usually busy taking care of their own duties when they answer that patient-billing-issue call. Plus, they may not even have enough knowledge about medical billing to handle it.

Put Someone on the Patient’s Side
What results is the feeling from your patients that they’re up against your practice in a battle for a billing resolution – consider the terminology associated with these issues: “fighting” charges, “disputing” a claim.

Even when all they need is an explanation of why something costs as much as it does, patients won’t feel that their doctor’s office has their best interests in mind when it takes repeated urging to get to their questions answered.

The solution to all that trouble is to give your patients an ally as they navigate the challenges of medical billing. Some practices go so far as to hire an employee to serve as the office’s “financial advocate,” whose duties involve helping your patients understand their health expenses – out-of-pocket and through their health plans – and taking care of special issues like filing, auditing or appealing problem claims upon patient request.

At the very least, you must appoint someone to be the go-to for patient billing questions, rather than just let those calls roll to the back office for the next available person to handle. This “patient billing support” rep can be a member of your billing team or a knowledgeable clerical staffer who can act as a liaison between your patients and your outsourcing service.

But it’s not enough to just have a designated point-person for these concerns. Make sure the rest of your clerical team can cover the slack when your advocate or support rep is unavailable.

“Educate onsite staff to answer 80% of patient questions,” advises Mary Pat Whaley of ManageMyPractice.com. “Some questions need a specialized person to answer, but the majority are straightforward. Your receptionist should not have that deer-in-the-headlights look when a question about a bill is posed.”

Providing good healthcare to your patients requires that you acknowledge, respect and recognize the significance of all aspects of your patient’s experience with your practice. Just as you wouldn’t let a patient’s question about his health go unanswered, you shouldn’t let his billing-issue calls go unreturned.

How do you ensure that your patients are pleased with their billing experience?