Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 44)

ASK THE EXPERTS Physicians Practice also has a guide listing vendors you might want to contact for demos so that you can compare them yourself: www.physicianspractice.com/ index/fuseaction/productServices. compare.htm Look at the listings for practice management and revenue cycle management. SEEKING A SUPER BILLER Q I have become very frustrated regarding the lack of answers from my billing department. I feel that I have two mid-level billers who do not have the attention to detail required to collect as much money as possible. I am “held hostage” as I do not know our software billing system as well as they do, and therefore must accept their vague answers as to the lack of results. The physicians in our practice have collectively agreed to hire a billing manager with a higher skill set. Where could we ﬁnd such a “Super Biller”? A Well, a couple of suggestions: First, why have two poor billers and a manager instead of just replacing your billers and having two good billers? Second, you can consider outsourcing to a revenue cycle management company that can keep you on track without heavy stafﬁng. Third, it may be well worth your time to grab the software manual and get some answers yourself. Now, to answer your actual question: You’ll ﬁnd a billing knowledge assessment form here: http://www.karenzupko.com/ resources/forms.html Use it with your candidates. Also ask any serious candidate to review your current A/R report and policies and identify things she’d change. Look for someone who can talk about how she made-over another practice. You can even, strategically, cherry pick from another ofﬁce that is doing well. You also can try advertising with the HFMA (www.hfma.org). Some of these folks will be more sophisticated than you might need, but I don’t know what other management you have. I would encourage you to solve the problem quickly. When employees know more about the accounts than the owners and the money trail isn’t transparent, the situation is ripe for embezzlement. • Pamela L. Moore, PhD, CPC, senior editor of practice management for Physicians Practice, is this month’s expert. Moore has been writing for physicians on practice management issues for 10 years, and she is a recognized speaker and commentator on healthcare management. She can be reached at pmoore@physicianspractice.com. 44 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | APRIL 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.hfma.org http://www.physicianspractice.com/index/fuseaction/productServices.compare.htm http://www.karenzupko.com/resources/forms.html http://www.aapa.org/joblink http://www.aapa.org/joblink http://www.aapa.org/joblink http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - April 2008

Physicians Practice - April 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain Noteworthy Cover Story: Trial Lawyers Tell All Management: When It’s Time to Change Ask the Experts Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is? The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean? Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball The Administrator's Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction Start It Up: Finance - Mastering the Numbers Game Coding The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - April 2008

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