The Importance of Creating Standard Front Office Workflows
Many organizations do not have standard workflows in place for their medical Front Office Representatives. Are you shocked? You shouldn't be, sadly, this is the norm for many privately owned medical practices. I have listed key takeaways that could be used in any front office practice.
Feel free to incorporate these ideas in your office!
STANDARD WORKFLOWS
PRE-REGISTRATION: Full Name, DOB, Demographic
Information, Insurance Information
(subscriber name and DOB)
INSURANCE VERIFICATION: Verify patient benefits no later
than 2 - 3 days prior to
appointment (DED, OOP,
COINS, COPAY)
PRE-CERTIFICATION: Obtain any Referral or Authorization
documents and forward to the carrier for
approval at least 7 business days prior to the
appointment, if applicable
MEDICAL RECORDS REQUEST: If the patient has been referred to
the practice it is wise to request
their Medical Records from the
referring physician's office. In
most, the referring physician will
contact the consulting physician
to assist in scheduling. This is a
great time to ask the
representative to send over the
patient's medical record
pertaining to the reason for the
visit. IF the patient is the person
making the appointment advise
them to request their medical
records from their provider prior
to the appointment.
COLLECT PAYMENTS: It is imperative that your Front Desk
Representative is comfortable with asking
patient's to pay their Co-payments as well as
any other patient responsibility balances
(Outstanding Balances, predetermined DED
amount for the visit, etc.). Remember trying
to collect payments on the back end is a
tough job!
CHECK OUT PATIENTS: More often than not, many offices do not
make it mandatory to ensure ALL
patients have been checked out. This
step helps to confirm patients were seen
and/or left the office with any additional
Orders or Follow Up appointments placed
in the system.
CONTACT NO SHOW AND CANCELED APPTS: Have your staff
contact the patients that did not make it to
their appointment or canceled their
appointment, to place them back on the
schedule.
END OF DAY TASKS: Make sure that all payments have been posted
correctly and batches accounted for.No Show
system for rescheduling purposes and patient
retention.