Improvement

High Speed Internet Access: Can It Improve Your Office?

Internet access becomes a critical productivity tool in the medical office

Fast internet connections are now commonly available in business and medical offices for as little as $30 to $50 per month. For that price, you get 5-10 e-mail addresses and access to the rest of the on-line world. Hospitals, insurance companies, and many of the vendors you work with have a wealth of information on-line. Eligibility, benefits, and referrals can be accessed in a few seconds… less time than it takes to dial a telephone and start holding. Supplies can be ordered in a fraction of the time needed for telephone based catalog ordering.

Direct connection to Medicare, Medicaid, BCBS and other payers allows you to be informed directly about medical policy and procedure. At Practice Management, we are able to be much better informed than Medicare representatives since we access billing policy directly. A recent review of Medicare carrier responses to inquiries found that 96% of answers given by Medicare billing representatives were inaccurate or incomplete. All of us must be informed at a level well above low level service representatives to succeed at compliance and reimbursement opportunities.

One of the difficulties some businesses have when dealing with medical offices is busy lines, long on-hold time, and answering services. Your staff are required to spend precious time with many calls back and forth to deal with simple issues and frustration ensues for vendors, patients and staff.

E-mail and on-line access can dramatically reduce staff telephone time and free them up to handle matters, improving your practice in the process.