For good reason, COVID-19 has forced most of the surgical industry into emergency mode with facilities seeing reduced hours or temporary closings altogether. The last few weeks have rightly been a time of reaction but what happens when centers and hospitals resume business as usual and it’s time to “act” again?
At this point, there is no crystal ball to tell when the world will be back to work but putting an industry, and country, back in motion will obviously take a lot of time and effort. Waiting to do this all at once would likely tax your staff, your patients, and stretch finances even further.
There are resources available that may help you continue to react practically now while also preparing to move quickly when the doors are again open for business.
Surgical facilities need to account for the following:
- Is your facility closed or working limited hours with limited staff?
- Is someone answering patient calls and helping maintain vital incoming revenue?
- If remote, is your team able to efficiently maintain compliance standards?
- Are you protecting your patient relationships?
Some centers are managing to tackle all the above items. Others have struggled due to limited staff, technology hurdles, and communication concerns.
Fortunately, the same “short term” solution today can also make getting back to work easier when the time comes. Consider a remote call center solution.
Help now
- Keep the business office open for the duration and provide night & weekend availability.
- Comfort patients who are still receiving statements with a live, knowledgeable rep who can answer questions and take payments.
- Remote call center service providers have had to account for compliance and technology requirements long before the entire nation did overnight.
- Maintain payment arrangements: Don’t let a balance and a lack of communication keep a patient from ever coming back.
- Contingency based price structure ensures no additional cost.
Help when the doors open and beyond
When we do resume business again, centers will need to focus on cases as soon as possible. At the same time, having a focus on patient payments can free up limited staff to keep building case volume.
- Open your doors sooner with an already fully functioning patient pay department
- Centers reopening can focus on scheduling cases while remote call center reps focus on payments
- Maintain extended business office hours going forward
- Stretch start-up dollars: Avoid out-of-pocket expenses for as long as possible with performance-based fees
If your doors are closed and you want to look at options for both the now and what comes next, we can help. Call 866.648.4677 today to see how Mnet Health is helping patients pay.