Practice tip of the week: Talking to patients about billing

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With all the useful information available on Physicians Practice, it is easy to become overwhelmed.

With this in mind, the tip of the week is a chance to reflect on some of the wisdom found all across the site. In this July 2024 story on talking to patients about billing, Avery Hurt gives this tip:

Educate clinical staff

It would be nice to leave billing to the billing department and patient care to the clinical staff. But that’s not always possible.

Billing staff don’t know what’s going to happen before or during the visit. For example, a clinician may perform a procedure that requires an additional copay. “[Before] these things happen, someone from billing needs to come back and explain the extra charge to the patient,” says Karen Lake, healthcare consultant at the firm Pearce, Bevill, Leesburg, Moore.

Clinical staff need to be prepared proactively address these situations, too. The rise of patient consumerism means that patients are more aware of their care costs and are more likely to ask what they’ll be expected to pay for procedures, lab tests, and the like. Often, those questions come up in the exam room.

“Physician assistants and nurses deal with this all the time, so it’s a good idea if the billing department does in-service training so that the clinical staff have a better idea of billing and insurance issues,” Lake says. “They don’t need to know all the details, but they do need to know when to call in the billing department for clarification.”

Click here to read the rest of the article and be sure to check back next week for another Tip of the Week!